Mixed Greek results in Euroleague thrillers

Panathinaikos clinched its Top 16 ticket with a wild come-from-behind win over Union Olimpija, claiming first place in Euroleague Group D in the process.

Olympiakos, meanwhile, went down in a thriller in Malaga, Spain, losing to Unicaja 76-74.

The Greens trailed by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter and Olimpija was in control down the stretch.

But with the ball and a 2-point lead in the closing seconds, a costly turnover for the visitors allowed Panathinaikos to get off a final shot, but though it missed, Antonis Fotsis was first to the rebound and beat the buzzer to tie the game and force overtime.

With the momentum then with the hosts, Drew Nicholas hit 3 three-pointers in an 11-0 overtime run that iced the victory.

The Greek champs, who lost to Olimpija in overtime earlier in the season, improved to 6-2 in Group D - one win more than Olimpija.

Fotsis paced the winners with 17 points and 9 rebounds, Dimitris Diamantidis produced 16 points and 11 assists, Nicholas scored 15 of 5-for-9 three-point shooting, Mike Batiste posted 14 points and 10 boards and Romain Sato netted 12.

Head coach Zlatko Obradovic told reporters that the win was a big one for his side.

"It is a big victory, but we have to look what happened in the first 39 minutes and not only what happened in the last minute.

"We knew that Olimpija is a very good team and tonight they caused us a lot of problems in defence and offence. We were lucky, but I don't forget the way we lost in Ljubljana.

"We missed energy and passion and we didn't read the situations in our offence."

The Euroleague Game of the Week lived up to all expectations with a thriller played out in Malaga, Spain. The hosts Unicaja defeated Olympiakos in a nail-biting finish 76-74.

Unicaja had been ahead for most of the game and even dominated by 17 points, 67-50, with eight minutes to go.

However, a huge 2-21 run by the Reds shut the hosts down and put them in control, 69-71 with three minutes to go.

Unicaja managed to react just in time and a missed long three by Milos Teodosic in the last play allowed for the win to stay in Spain.

The win allows Unicaja to improve to 5-3 to tie for first place of Group B with Olympiakos and Real Madrid.

For the Reds, Teodosic had 20 points, Vassilis Spanoulis added 19 and Zoran Erceg had 15.

Reds head coach Dusan Ivkovic said, "It was a good game, even though it was strange. Unicaja was ahead most of the time and they deserved this win.

"In the end we were close and we had the winning shot in our hands.

"I said the game was strange because we managed to take the last quarter in which Unicaja always does well, but we lost just the same."