Greece’s Euroleague representatives suffered two losses on the road as Olympiakos and Maroussi went down, to Partizan Belgrade and Maccabi respectively.

Panathinaikos, in contrast, enjoyed a strong win at home against German champions EWE Oldenburg by some 33 points.

Panathinaikos 96 Oldenburg (Ger) 63

Panathinaikos improved to 4-1 and kept tying for first place in Group D at the halftime mark of the 2009-10 regular season by rallying to down EWE Baskets Oldenburg 96-63 in Athens, on Wednesday last week.

Panathinaikos stayed undefeated at home and welcomes AJ Milano next week. Meanwhile, Oldenburg dropped to 1-4 by registering its fourth consecutive loss.

Mike Batiste led the winners with 25 points on 9-of-11 two-pointers in his first Euroleague game this season.

Vassilis Spanoulis added 14, Stratos Perperoglou got 12 while Nikola Pekovic had 10 for Panathinaikos.

A three-pointer by Milenko Tepic gave Panathinaikos a 19-13 lead late in the first quarter. Oldenburg kept trying to speed up the game tempo, as Carter and Bailey fuelled an 0-11 run that gave the guests a 27-34 lead.

Panathinaikos struggled at both ends and a buzzer-beating triple by Carter fixed the halftime score at halftime. Batiste and Pekovic led the hosts’ comeback, based on outstanding defence.

The Greens were all over the place in defence, getting a 66-56 margin after 30 minutes and boosting its to 75-59 to seal the outcome long before the final buzzer.

Baptise indicated that it was not so easy for his team, saying; “Sometimes it happens when you need to wake up and be yourself. We didn’t play well in the first half.Our biggest problem was the defensive rebounds of EWE, but during halftime the coach managed to wake us up by giving the right orders. We had a totally different performance in the second half. We improved our defense and scored easy points.”

Partizan Belgrade (SRB) 86 Olympiakos 80

Partizan fought back from down 9 points in the third quarter to beat Olympiakos 86-80 and put itself in the race for the Top 16 with its improved 2-3 record.

In the opening period, it was Aleksandar Rasic who scored 10 points to tie the game, then Bo McCalebb led the charge in the second half igniting a 12-0 run to take the lead.

As the match drew to its conclusion, after McCalebb fouled out with 3:11 to play, it was Aleks Maric’s turn as the center scored 7 straight points to ensure the win.

Rasic led the way with 25 points and 5 assists while Maric had a monster game of 23 points, 15 rebounds and 5 steals. Bo McCalebb added 19 points for the winners.
Josh Childress scored 18 and grabbed 7 boards for the visitors.

Linas Kleiza added 18 points on 14-of-16 free throw shooting. Yotam Halperin and Milos Teodosic chipped in 15 and 12, respectively, as Olympiakos fell to 3-2.

The Reds, still tied for second place with Lietuvos Rytas, visit winless Entente Orleanaise next.

Olympiakos guard Milos Teodosic said after the game,  “We knew it would be a hard game with a lot of emotions. We did not open the game in a good style, and later we were weak in defence. That was the key to our loss.”

Maccabi (ISR) 75  Maroussi 67

Maccabi Electra secured at least a share of first place in Group C at the midway point of the regular season after beating Maroussi BC 75-67 in front of a packed house at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv.

Andrew Wisniewski scored 20 and Maciej Lampe had a career-high 19 points plus 9 rebounds for the Israeli champs, who improved to 4-1. Maroussi fell to 1-4 and heads to face CSKA Moscow next week.

Maroussi guard Billy Keys, was disappointed with the loss saying, “They are a tough team, but we had a chance to win the game, so it’s a bit disappointing we didn’t make it.
“Now we need to forget about this game, take a shower and move on to the next game, because I think we can still do good things in the Euroleague.”

Maroussi looked strong in the second quarter before the hosts relied on David Bluthenthal and Lampe for a 9-0 charge that gave Maccabi a 41-40 halftime lead.

Maccabi increased its lead throughout the second half and although Maroussi never went away, it could not mount a serious charge down the stretch.

Maroussi’s biggest weapon was its 21 offensive rebounds, but that would prove to be not enough to register a road win in Tel Aviv.

Billy Keys paced the visitors with 14 points and Jamon Lucas and Dimitrios Mavroeidis added 12 each in defeat.