It was a mixed week for Greek sides taking part in European competitions with Olympiakos and Panathinaikos winning in Italy and Aris winning in Thessaloniki while PAOK and Panellinios lost their matches.
AJ Milano 71 – Panathinaikos 81
After a competitive game in which both teams showed the right attitude until the final buzzer, Panathinaikos took a valuable road win over AJ Milano on Thursday night by 71-81 in a Group D showdown.
The Greens dominated during all the game but Milano never surrendered and managed to trim the deficit down to 64-67 in the first half of the last period.
However, Mike Batiste appeared with 8 straight points for Panathinaikos to put things back in place as there was no time for the hosts to recover once more.
With the win, the Greens improve to 4-1 to tie with Union Olimpija at the top of the ladder while Milano drops to 2-3.
Dimitris Diamantidis led the way with 14 points while Milenko Tepic and Mike Batiste posted 13 apiece.
Olympiakos 86 – Roma 71
Olympiakos disposed Lottomatica Roma 86-71 on Wednesday night in Rome and go clear at the top of Euroleague Group B.
It was the Reds’ first victory on the road and puts them ahead of Real Madrid in the group. Olympiakos travel to the Spanish capital next week.
The Greeks did all the hard work in the first two quarters, building up a 53-40 lead at half time.
Olympiakos had the better start taking a 13-6 lead. Lottomatica replied with 10-5, but mostly owing to Mavrokefalides the Reds closed Q1 leading 24-18. Olympiakos took total control in the second quarter.
They quickly jumped Lottomatica to lead by nine and later Bourousis and Halperin knocked down back-to-back long balls as the Olympiakos advantage extended to 14 points, for the reds to lead 39 – 25 midway through the second quarter.
Both sides went point for point and the first half saw Olympiakos lead 53 – 40.
In the second hald Olympiako mainatained their dominance over the Italian sides and halfway through the final quarter they enjoyed a 19-point lead after Marko Keselj scored a triple pointer. The Greek side played out the match a comfortbale 15 point winners.
Aris 88- Azovmash 75
P.J. Tucker scored 28 points to lead Aris to the victory in its EuroCup opener. The Greek powerhouse denied Azovmash in Thessaloniki for its first win in Group D of the Euroleague.
Aris opened the game with four points in a row to set the tone.
The hosts quickly ran away for a 19:8 lead. Azovmash managed to pull within 7 points at the first break.
Aris responded in the second quarter with a 10:3 run to take a 33:19 lead midway through the second period.
The visitors replied with a 9 zip run of their own and after one half of action the scoreboard read 40:32 in favor of Aris.
Fred House organized an 8:0 run from Azovmash at the start of the second half however Tapoutos and P.J. Tucker immediately responded for Aris and soon the Greeks were back in the drivers seat with an eleven point lead.
Azovmash did not surrender as they trailed by just 5 points with one quarter remaining.
P.J. Tucker and Dejan Borovnjak stepped up for Aris in the fourth quarter to lead Aris to victory
Other matches
PAOK suffered an 11-point loss in Madrid to Estudiantes (88-77) despite the 24 points and 17 rebounds by Lazaros Papadopoulos.
Panelinios led Cantu at the 29th minute in Italy (48-47), but the hosts turned it around in the last period and won 72-57.