Reds triumph at Barcelona and Belgrade
Olympiakos scored two road wins within 48 hours to return of the top eight of the Euroleague table, while Panathinaikos went down again at home.
The Reds first triumphed at Barcelona, winning 96-88 on Tuesday against the joint leader of the Euroleague, stunning their hosts from the outset with a 12-0 run.
The Catalans played catch-up for the rest of the game but Olympiakos was composed enough to fend off their challenge and emerge victorious from one of its toughest games in the regular season’s schedule. Shaquielle McKissic stood out with his 16 points for the Reds.
Then two days later Olympiakos found it more difficult to beat Red Star in Belgrade, but did so thanks to a last-ditch effort by Giorgos Printezis. His shot gave the Reds the 81-79 result for their seventh win in 12 games.
The 14 points that Vassilis Spanoulis scored in Belgrade took him above Juan Carlos Navarro and onto the top spot of the all-time scorer of Europe’s top club competition, from the Champions Cup to the Euroleague.
As for Panathinaikos, it failed to follow up its win at Armani Milano with a home win on Friday, going down 81-69 to Zalgiris Kaunas.
The damage was done in the first half for the Greens, who trailed 43-33 at the interval, and even when they drew level at 50-50 they slumped to a 67-52 deficit to give up any hope of winning.
Giorgos Papagiannis had a double double (10 points, 11 rebounds), but that was not enough to prevent Panathinaikos’ eighth loss in 12 matches.
