Panathinaikos and Olympiakos both won their Euroleague basketball matches this week while Aris went down away.
Panathinaikos routed Unicaja Malaga 82-56 on Thursday night at the Athens Indoor Olympic Hall to strengthen its hold of Group E in Top 16, Week 2.
Panathinaikos improved to 2-0, while dropping Unicaja to 0-2.
Kostas Tsartsaris paced the winners with 14 points and 8 rebounds, while Mike Batiste added 12 and 5 boards and Startos Perperoglou scored 10.
Panathinaikos capitalized on a 43-28 rebounding edge.
The Greens travel next week to challenge Caja Laboral in Spain, while Unicaja will play at home against Lietuvos Rytas.
PAO coach Zeljko Obradovic said after the game, “Ιt makes sense that after a good practice we have a very good game. This is the key for us. We were ready to play against Unicaja at both ends and we did it from the beginning of the game with the support of our fans, who created a nice atmosphere.
“It is always important to read the defence of our opponents and to make the proper adjustments, as happened tonight.
“I have to mention that without Archibald, Tripkovic and McIntyre, Unicaja is not the same team.”
Olympiakos win in Lithuania
On Wednesday, Olympiakos held off a late Zalgiris charge topick up its first win of the Top 16, 64-71, at S. Darius and S. Girenas Sports center in Lithuania.
The Reds led by as many as 24 points before Marty Pocius led the hosts back to within 3. However a big Vassilis Spanoulis triple and two clutch free throws from Milos Teodosic helped Olympiakos in the end.
The Reds bounced back from last week’s defeat to take a 1-1 record in Group H, while Zalgiris dropped to 0-2.
The difference in the game was ball-handling. While Olympiakos turned the ball over just five times, Zalgiris coughed it up 21 times, something that even its 39-29 rebounding advantage could not correct.
Spanoulis paced the winners with 17 points and 4 assists, Teodosic added 13 points, Ioannis Bourousis scored 11 and Rasho Nesterovic posted 9 points and 8 rebounds.
Pocius carried Zalgiris with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, while Boban Marjanovic posted 12 points and 7 boards in defeat.
Aris lose to Le Mans
In Eurocup action, French outfit Le Mans returned to the fight in Group J with a convincing 85-70 victory over Aris. The result leaves a four-way tie in the Group J standings at 1-1.
The hosts started the second half with an 18-4 run and never looked back. Aris cut the gap to 7 in the fourth quarter, but Le Mnas answered quickly to put the game away.
Alex Acker dominated with 19 points and 6 assists to pace the winners, who visit Budivelnik next week.
J.P. Batista added 15 points, Michailis Kakiouzis scored 14 against his former team and Ben Dewar tallied 13 and 8 rebounds.
Christos Tapoutos scored 14 and grabbed 8 boards in defeat. P.J. Tucker had 13 points and Bobby Brown 10 for Aris, which made just 1 of 15 attempts from behind the arc.
Aris returns home to meet BG Goettingen next week.