Away win for Reds, home loss for Greens
Olympiakos and Panathinaikos follow different courses in the first group stage of the Euroleague, with the Reds scoring their fifth win in six games at Cedevita Zagreb on Thursday (83-70) while the Greens suffered their fourth reverse in six going down to Lokomotiv Kuban (77-71) at home on Friday.
The Greek champion is top of its group and looking good for a place in the top two, while the Greek league leader will need to win at least two out of the four remaining games to make sure it makes the cut for the top-16 of the competition.
Cedevita led for the best part of the first half in Zagreb, taking advantage of the absence of Vassilis Spanoulis and Giorgos Printezis for Olympiakos, but the Greeks recovered in the second half and made the most of their scoring ability to win by 13 in the end.
Panathinaikos was second-best to its Russian visitor for most of the game in Athens, but it took an amazing four-and-a-half minutes by Malcolm Delaney when he notched up no fewer than 20 points to give Lokomotiv its second victory over Panathinaikos this season. Coached by Greek Giorgos Bartzokas, Lokomotiv had 13 in 27 three-pointers.
In the Eurocup on Wednesday AEK won 82-78 at Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd, Aris saw off Trabzonspor 78-70 and PAOK lost 78-69 at Szolnoki Olaj.
