Home wins in Euroleague for Greens and Reds
Home advantage counted for Greece’s representatives in the Euroleague, with Olympiakos making it two out of two and Panathinaikos scoring its maiden win for the season in Europe.
The Greens faced Germany’s Bamberg and were in the lead for virtually the entire game at the Olympic Sports Hall in Athens to win 93-83 on Thursday.
Although they left much to be desired in terms of defense, the hosts outplayed the German team showing more energy and better shooting rates (9/16 in triples), mainly thanks to the excellent Nick Calathes (who equalled his Euroleague career high of 23 points) and a great second half from Chris Singleton who scored all of his 15 points after the interval.
Panathinaikos advanced by up to 17 points, and even when the visitors cut the distance to below 10 they never really got to threaten their hosts with an upset. Nikos Zisis scored only two points in 16 minutes for Bamberg.
Olympiakos was challenged in the second and the fourth period by Unicaja Malaga on Friday before defeating the Spaniards 80-75 in Piraeus.
The Reds had an early 12-point lead cut to four points by half-time (37-33). They pulled away again (59-47) in the third quarter, Malaga cut the distance to three (71-68) but could not get any closer, appearing frustrated in attack.
Hollis Thompson led the scoring for the Piraeus team (15 points), followed by Nikola Milutinov (12 points).
In the Basketball Champions League AEK triumphed at Venezia in overtime with a 103-101 score, while Aris suffered a 99-70 mauling at Nymburk and PAOK lost 85-82 at home to Gaziantep.
