Regular Season Week 10 in review
|
Unicaja smashed Maccabi Electra 92-69 to clinch first place in Group A. The hosts started 15-2 and never looked back, extending their home-court winning streak to 23 Euroleague games. Boni NDong led Unicaja with 15 points and 5 blocked shots. He has now swatted a shot in seven games in a row and averaged 2.4 blocks per game in the second half of the season.
 Le Mans stunned Olympiacos 68-78 to finish the season with back-to-back wins after eight straight losses. It marked the second season in a row that Le Mans won only two games and both times they were the last two games of the season. Dewarick Spencer paced the winners with 20 points and Alain Koffi finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double in his last six games.
Air Avellino topped Cibona 79-75 to finish the season on a high note. Guard Drake Diener recorded 20 points and 8 rebounds – both Euroleague career highs – to lead Avellino, which finished 3-7 in its debut Euroleague campaign. Earl Calloway paced Cibona with 20 points and 9 rebounds in defeat.
Regal FC Barcelona pasted Zalgiris 90-68 to complete the best record in the regular season this year, 9-1. Roger Grimau scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half for Barca. It was Barcelona’s ninth straight home win. The club’s average margin of victory so far this season stands at 19.2 points.
Panathinaikos outclassed Prokom 75-73 as Sarunas Jasikevicius netted 14. Prokom was without head coach Tomas Pacesas and its top three scorers, David Logan, Dan Ewing and Pat Burke. The Greens’ Dimitris Diamantidis's offense wasn’t needed and as a result, he didn’t shoot much from downtown and saw his streak of 16 straight Euroleague appearances with at least 1 three-pointer draw to a close. Ten different players scored for the Greens and the reserves outproduced the starters 15-60 in points, 8-30 in rebounds and 2-16 in assists.
 Montepaschi Siena torched SLUC Nancy 79-103 as Arriel McDonald and Shaun Stonerook led seven Siena scorers in double figures with 15 points apiece. All Euroleague playmaker Terrell McIntyre also dished 11 assists, extended his streak of games with a steal to 10 and of games with a three-pointer made to seven. Jeff Greer led the French champs with a Euroleague career-high 18 points, while his brother, Ricardo, committed 4 turnovers and finished the season with more turnovers than any player this decade – 4.6 per game.
Tau Ceramica beat DKV Joventut 91-83 to finish the second half of the regular season with a perfect record. Igor Rakocevic netted 19 points for Tau to become the league’s regular season scoring champ at 20 points per game. However his record-setting free throw streak came to an end at 58 when he missed in the first quarter. Tiago Splitter added 18 points to finish fifth on the scoring charts with 15.4 points per game, making the Rakocevic/Splitter duo the highest-scoring tandem in the league.
Fenerbahce Ulker overcame Lottomatica Roma 90-86 in overtime, but it wasn’t enough to overtake second place, which Roma kept on a tiebreaker. Oguz Savas came off the bench to dominate with a career-best 27 points for the winners. Damir Mrsic Kaan drilled 4 threes for the second week in a row to finish the regular season tied for the league lead with 26 triple. Sani Becirovic paced Roma with 24 points, increasing his scoring average to 17.4 per game – his best average since his Euroleague rookie season. His average ranking index of 22 is best in the competition this season.
Union Olimpija stopped Alba Berlin 59-67, but the German champs backed into the Top 16 when DKV Joventut also lost. Big man Vladimir Golubovic came off the bench for a season-high 21 points and 8 rebounds to spark Olimpija to victory. Meanwhile Berlin advanced a stage in Europe’s top club competition for the first time since the 2000-01 season, when it went to the quarterfinals before falling to Panathinaikos.
 Luca Vitali drilled 7 three-pointers and scored a career-high 32 points as Armani Jeans downed Panionios On Telecoms 77-87 for its first road win of the season. Milano placed third in Group D with a 5-5 record. The club started the season 0-4 before winning five of its last six to advance. The win saw Milano advance a stage in the Euroleague for the first time since 1997, when current Lottomatica Roma head coach Nando Gentile was its starting point guard.
Partizan Belgrade surprised CSKA 63-66 on the road as Aleksadar Rasic scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and Petar Bozic sealed the game with a steal on the final play. The Serbian champs reached the Top 16 for the second time in a row. Meanwhile CSKA dropped its third game in the last five after starting the season 5-0.
Real Madrid defeated Efes Pilsen 80-69 as Jeremiah Massey recorded his first double-double of the season for the winners. Madrid clinched second place, while falling to fifth and failing to advance past the regular season for the first time in over a decade was Efes Pilsen. Massey had 15 points and 11 boards for his 12th career Euroleague double-double.
|
|
Euroleague.net
|