An impressive show of force by Olympiakos at the Peace of Friendship Stadium saw the Reds chalk up an easy 86-60 win over Brose Baskets Bamberg to improve their Euroleague record to 5-2.
The Reds also took advantage of Real Madrid’s loss to take sole possession of first place in the Group B standings.
Moreover, Olympiakos is now in the driver’s seat and can clinch a Top 16 berth as soon as next week when it travels to Unicaja.
This time the Euroleague runner-up got 16 points and 8 rebounds from Loukas Mavrokefalides and 16 points from Vassilis Spanoulis against Brose Baskets, who fell to 2-5.
Ioannis Bourousis also scored 12 points and grabbed 12 boards for the winners, while Kostas Papanikolaou scored 12 with three triples and Theodoros Papaloukas added 10 points.
Brose Baskets suffered a 16-7 run in the second quarter and could not get back in the game despite 16 points and 9 boards by Tibor Pleiss and 15 points by Kyle Hines.
Losing the rebounding battle, 46-35, was crucial for the visitors, who also counted 13 points from Brian Roberts. Bamberg will visit Spirou Charleroi next week.
Panathinaikos took a solid step forwards to win Group D by downing CSKA 68-72 in Moscow on Thursday morning. The battle between two of the Euroleague’s best sides in the past decade lived up to expectations despite their vastly differing seasons to date.
Panathinaikos improved to 5-2 and is all but mathematically qualified to the Top 16. Meanwhile, CSKA dropped to 1-6 and looks set to struggle to qualify.
Dimitris Diamantidis led the winners with 17 points. Stratos Perperoglou added 12 for Panathinaikos.
Dimitry Sokolov led CSKA with 17 points. Matjaz Smodis and Andrey Vorontsevich each added 11 while Ramunas Siskauskas got 10 for the hosts.
Panathinaikos controlled the game in the first half and a three-pointer by Milenko Tepic gave the Greens a 28-37 lead.
CSKA managed to get within 35-41 at halftime but Ian Vougioukas, Perperoglou and Romain Sato allowed the Greens to get a 51-60 edge after 30 minutes.
CSKA fought back to tie it at 60-60 but Perpergolou and Diamantidis struck from downtown in crunch time for a 64-71 score.
CSKA managed to get within three points in the final minute but Diamantidis sealed the outcome from the foul line.