Greens beat Darussafaka, Reds lose in Madrid
Panathinaikos overcame the strong Turkish resistance of Darussafaka at home for a much needed win in the second group tage of the Euroleague, while Olympiakos succumbed to the might of Real Madrid.
Darussafaka made life very difficult for Panathinaikos on Friday, but the Greeks overcame their visitors’ resistance with an 82-79 score in Athens for their second win in five games. The Turks outfoxed the Greek defense at times, but the hosts' front line made the difference.
In the absence of injured captain Dimitris Diamantidis, Miroslav Raduljica was the top scorer for Panathinaikos with 17 points.
Regardless of the result, the first five games of the Top 16 have shown that the Greens are not playoff material at this stage. Aware of that, the club signed US guard Marquez Heynes from Sassari on Friday.
Olympiakos returned to the court where it lost last spring’s Euroleague final and had the same fate against the same opponent on Thursday going down 84-72 to host Real Madrid, that was on top for virtually the entire game.
Othello Hunter and Daniel Hackett scored 14 points each for Olympiakos on a poor night for Vassilis Spanoulis (one point) and Giorgos Printezis (five points).
This was the third loss in a row for the Reds who are on a 2-3 record after the first five games in the Top 16. The squad returned to Piraeus with an injured Hackett who will sit out the next seven to 10 days.
In the Eurocup Aris preserved its perfect record at home in the competition this season with a 73-63 win over Alba Berlin on Wednesday, while PAOK went down 83-71 at Oldenburg on Tuesday.
