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The mid-point of the regular season has arrived with two exclusive group leaders, three teams sharing first place in another group, and a whole lot of challengers lined up close behind to go after them in the second leg. Only one team is perfect after seven games, however, and that is none other than defending champion Panathinaikos, which rallied at home to defeat Real Madrid, its nearest pursuer in Group C, by 92-85 behind 24 points from Mike Batiste. Panathinaikos, down 71-77 with 4 minutes left, used a 21-8 finishing run to win. Madrid joins AXA F.C. Barcelona, a blowout 80-58 winner over Brose Baskets Bamberg, in Group C's second place. The other exclusive leader after Week 7 is last season's other finalist, CSKA Moscow, which overcame ongoing injury problems to sit atop Group A with a 6-1 record. CSKA cruised past visiting VidiVici Bolonga 79-53 as six players scored between 10 and 16 points. Now second in Group A is Montepaschi Siena, an 86-84 home winner over Olympiacos thanks to Terrell McIntyre's last-minute heroics and Romain Sato's 23 points. Group B has a trio of leaders after Lietuvos Rytas shook off a two-game losing streak by dominating Cibona 93-59. Marijonas Petravicius scored 17 points for L. Rytas, whose 5-2 record ties it with Unicaja, which suffered a 91-75 road loss at the hands of Efes Pilsen, and with Maccabi, which downed Aris TT Bank 85-70 as David Bluthenthal posted 20 points. Efes and Aris now share fourth place in Group B, one victory behind the co-leaders.
In Group A, CSKA Moscow overcame ongoing injury problems to retain sole possession of first place. Even without starters Matjaz Smodis and Alexey Savrasenko, not to mention Euroleague MVP Theodoros Papaloukas, CSKA cruised past visiting VidiVici Bolonga 79-53 as six players scored between 10 and 16 points. The victory increased CSKA's home-court winning streak to 21 games, tough it will need to win out the rest of its home games this season and well into next to have a chance at breaking Tau Ceramica's all-time record of 30 straight at home, which CSKA snapped last week.
Now alone in Group A's second place is Montepaschi Siena, which rallied to defeat visiting Olympiacos 86-84 on Terrell McIntyre's last-minute heroics, while Romain Sato led the winners with 23 points. Montepaschi's defense, the best in the entire competition, held Arvydas Macijauskas, the Euroleague's leading scorer coming into the game, to a season-low 13 points.
Olympiacos fell into a tie for third place with Tau Ceramica, the victim of an ambush in Kaunas, Lithuania, where Zalgiris won a 95-92 shootout as Euroleauge all-time leading scorer Marcus Brown had 27 points on near-perfect shooting. Zalgiris is perfect in three home games so far. The defeat was Tau's second in a row, the first time that has happened, except in a Final Four, since December of 2005.
Union Olimpija remained hot in the race for a Top 16 spot by knocking off Prokom Trefl Sopot 68-49 in its best defensive performance in six years. Olimpija held the London Towers to 40 in a Euroleague game in December 2001, which remains the second best team defensive showing all decade. On Thursday, Jasmin Hukic, the only player to appear in both games, and Olimpija captain Marko Milic led the way with 16 points each.
In Group B, Lietuvos Rytas shook off a two-game losing streak by dominating Cibona 93-59 at home in Vilnius, Lithuania. Martynas Petravicius led the way with 17 points for L. Rytas, who won the rebounding war by double, 40 to 20. L. Rytas enjoyed its first 20-point leads before the half and never looked back. It also got good news and joined a tie for first place because Efes Pilsen simultaneously blew out Unicaja 91-75 in Instanbul. Efes saw six scorers reach double figures and dished 22 assists, more than double its average until then.
Maccabi Elite joined Unicaja and L. Rytas atop the group by scoring its most lopsided win of the season, 85-70 over Aris TT Bank. David Bluthenthal had his best game of the season and Terence Morris joined in with a season-high as Maccabi started the game 10-0 and never trailed. Maccabi improved to 9-6 all-time in a rivalry that dates back to 1967, though the teams hadn't met before Thursday in over 15 years.
Armani Jeans Milano won its second straight on the road and remained in the hunt for the Top 16 as teenage sensation Danilo Gallinari shined in a 63-71 win at Le Mans. Gallinari was good for 15 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 12 fouls drawn in a fine individual performance that gives the team hope for the second half of the regular season.
In Group C, Panathinaikos remained the lone undefeated team in the competition, but needed to work hard to overcome Real Madrid 92-85. The Spanish champs led by 6 midway through the fourth quarter, but the Greens' guards spurred a comeback as Panathinaikos grabbed control to take a two-victory lead over Madrid and Barcelona atop the group standings. Mike Batiste led the winners with a season-high 24 points and Sarunas Jasikevicius added 21 points and 6 assists.
AXA F.C. Barcelona finds itself sharing second place following an easy 80-58 victory against visiting Brose Baskets Bamberg. It was Barcelona's fourth home win in as many tries, and confirmed the ongoing rise of big man Mario Kasun, who put down 14 points. Barcelona has the competition's second-best defense halfway through the regular season.
 Fenerbahce Ulker took its second road win, 72-76 over Partizan Igokea, despite not having Euroleague rebounds leader Mirsad Turkcan to help. Fenerbahce's fourth win in the last five games featured six different players bombing three-point shots and 16-for-18 free throw shooting. Fenerbahce's two road wins could be worth a lot later since they came against the two teams that follow its fourth place in the standings.
Chorale Roanne broke its five-game
losing streak in high-scoring style as it thrashed visiting
Lottomatica Roma 104-85 as Marc Salyers, Brion Rush, Adam Hess and
Pape Badiane combined for 77 points and Marc Antoine Pellin came
within 1 assist of a Euroleague record with 13. Roanne might yet
throw its hat in the ring for a Top 16 qualification, as it moved
within a victory of fifth-place, with the team above it – Partizan
– and one below it – Bamberg – on the schedule next.
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Friday, December 07, 2007
Euroleague.net
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