The sixth week of the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Regular Season will long be remembered as a great one. CSKA Moscow and FC Barcelona Regal remained unbeaten and became the first two clubs to reach the Top 16. Six games were decided by 6 points or less – including four by just 2 points! Beyond that two games went to overtime, three Euroleague superstars recorded career bests in impressive wins and one Carlos Navarro became the all-time leading scorer since the competition was founded in 2000. Group remains the closest of the four regular season groups after Week 6 action. On Wednesday, Vassilis Spanoulis amassed a career-high 29 points plus 6 assists as
Olympiacos outlasted Gescrap BB 88-81. Spanoulis scored 18 in the fourth quarter including 4 free throws in the final minute to ice the win. Then on Thursday,
Caja Laboral edged Fenerbahce Ulker 90-85 after overtime behind Fernando San Emeterio’s career-best 25 points. The All-Euroleague swingman set the stage for the win with a triple and floater to start the extra session.
SLUC Nancy topped Bennet Cantu 76-75 led by Pape Philippe Amagou’s 18 points off the bench. The results leave group-leading Laboral with just 2 wins more than last-placed Gescrap with four teams tied in the middle at 3-3 and just four games to go.
CSKA Moscow bounced Zalgiris Kaunas 95-82 behind a big showing from Nenad Krstic. The center tallied 21 points and 7 rebounds as CSKA improved to 6-0 in Group B and clinched a ticket to the Top 16.
Panathinaikos overcame Unicaja 76-77 on Euroleague MVP Dimitris Diamantidis’s last-second three-pointer. Simantidis made a career-high 7 triples and finished with 23 points for the Greens, who ended a two-game losing streak.
KK Zagreb turned away Brose baskets 86-74 as Josh Heytvelt, Krunoslav Simon and Mario Kasun all turned in double doubles. Panathinaikos is alone in second place, while two wins separate third place Unicaja from last place Zalgiris. Group C leader
Maccabi Electra downed EA7 Emporio Armani Milano 85-76 as All-Euroleague center Sofoklis Schortsanitis netter 22 of his career-high 28 points in the first half and Jordan Farmar scored 12 of his 21 in the fourth quarter. The win was Maccabi’s fifth straight and avenged its only loss of the season so far.
Real Madrid held on to beat Belgacom Spirou 93-89. Marty Pocius scored a career-best 20 as Madrid got 64 points off the bench. Serge Ibaka added 5 blocks and Sergio Rodriguez dished 9 assists in a true team effort for Los Blancos. And Sasha Vujacic matched his season high with 21 points as
Anadolu Efes overcame Partizan mt:s 67-58. Both teams are now 3-3 and locked in the middle of Group C.
FC Barcelona Regal celebrated a 72-46 drubbing of Union Olimpija with Juan Carlos Navarro, whose 14 points took him past Marcus Brown to become the competition’s all-time leading scorer with 2,716 points. Barca improved to 6-0 and punched its early ticket to the Top 16.
Galatasaray Medical Park edged Asseco Prokom 78-76 after overtime to stay on pace for the Top 16. The hosts used a late 11-1 charge to force overtime and then held off the Polish champs, who remain the league’s lone winless team. Zaza Pachulia led the winners with 19 points and 10 boards. And on Wednesday
Unics Kazan upset Montepaschi 73-79 in Italy. Henry Domercant finished with 24 points and Vladimir Veremeenko tallied 21 points and 10 rebounds for Unics, which tied Siena for second place in Group D at 4-2. The pressure is now mounting on Olimpija and Prokom with time running out to catch Galatasaray for fourth place.