Greek sides won three from three games in the Euroleague this week, as the group stage nears completion.
Panathinaikos had a dramatic victory, coming back from a seven point deficit with 23 seconds remaining, to win the game in overtime.
Their chief domestic rivals Olympiakos had a huge victory over Unicaja to take top spot in Group B while Maroussi won comfortably at home to increase their chances of a second round appearance.
Olympiakos 89 Unicaja (SPA) 68
First place in Group B changed hands for the first time all season on Thursday as Olympiakos manhandled visiting Spaniards Unicaja 89-68 before an appreciative crowd in Greece.
Both teams are now 5-2, but Olympiakos won by 3 points more than it lost in Malaga in their first meeting, so the Reds take over first place.
Injury-riddled Unicaja, which lost centre Robert Archibald, too, midway through this game, came out strong, talking an early eight-point lead.
Olympiakos followed the entry of Theo Papaloukas on a steady path to the lead, however, and kept rolling until the score difference from that first game was eclipsed in the final minutes.
Josh Childress and Linas Kleiza paced the winners with 15 points each, while Yotam Halperin added 14, Nikola Vujcic 12 and Ioannis Bourousis 10. Papaloukas scored 9 points and dished 7 assists.
The Reds took advantage of Unicaja being without starting big man Joel Freeland to rule on the backboards with a rebounding advantage of 39-21.
Olympiakos coach praised his side but looked forward to the next games, “We had a good game tonight. Our guys were determined from the beginning to go for the point difference. We had talked about that and said that we should be patient and calm. However, we did come out nervous in the first quarter,” he said.
“The pressure in the next games against Lietuvos Ritas and Efes Pilsen, both on the road, will do us good in order to learn how to handle with difficult situations. In the second and in the fourth period we played good basketball and finally managed to win by more than 18 points, which was the first game’s deficit.”
BC Khimki (Rus) 82 Panathinaikos 87 (O/T)
Panathinaikos arguably got one of the most unbelievable wins so far in this 2008-09 Euroleague season by rallying for a seven-point deficit in the final 23 seconds of regulation to force overtime and edge BC Khimki Moscow Region 82-87 in Russia on Wednesday.
Panathinaikos stayed atop the Group D standings with a 6-1 record and clinched a Top 16 spot with this win. Meanwhile, Khimki dropped to 4-3 but keeps all options alive to make it to the next round.
Vassilis Spanoulis led the winners with 24 points but Antonis Fotsis became the game hero with a high-flying tip-in that sent the game to overtime. Mike Batiste added 15 points, Nikola Pekovic got 13 while Antonis Fotsis had 10 for the Greens. Kelly McCarty led Khimki with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
Cabezas took over after the break and a jumper by Robertas Javtokas gave Khimki a 72-65 lead with less than a minute left. Drew Nicholas and Spanoulis brought the Greens back to life. Spanoulis drew a foul at 73-70 with 2.1 seconds left.
He missed his second attempt and Fotsis took over with an incredible tip-in right at the buzzer to force overtime, 73-73. Spanoulis and Stratos Perperoglou struck from downtown early in the extra period and Panathinaikos never looked back.
Zeljko Obradovic, Panathinaikos head coach, went as far as suggesting his opposition deserved the win; “We expected a tough game, because we know BC Khimki’s high level. In normal situations, BC Khimki played better than our team and deserved the win. But it happens in basketball that that team that scored the more during the last minutes wins the game. I am satisfied with my players, who continued to fight at the end of the game. In the fourth quarter we had problems when Khimki started to play zone defense. I want to congratulate Khimki on an excellent game.”
Maroussi 74 Union Olimpija (SLO) 62
Maroussi BC enhanced its Top 16 hopes by completing a regular season sweep of Union Olimpija with a 74-62 home win on Wednesday in Athens.
Maroussi is now 2-5 and just one victory out of all-important fourth place in Group C.
Union Olimpija fell to 1-6 and will need to now pass Maroussi in wins to have a chance at reaching the Top 16.
Maroussi used a 14-4 run in the opening minutes of the final quarter to push a modest lead to 15 points.
Jared Homan led the way for Maroussi with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Michalis Pelekanos added 12 points while Kostas Kaimakoglou had 11 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
After trailing by 14 in the first quarter, Olimpija fought back by turning up the tempo and, despite not scoring for 5 minutes of the third quarter, cut the difference to 4.
That was as close as the visitors would get, however, as Maroussi proved too strong in the final period.Pelekanos told reporters after the game, “We played well enough both in defence and offense and the result is fair. We didn’t allow them to play their game. We kept playing, trying for the best possible result.