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The undefeated streak of the defending champions ended with the first game of the regular season's second leg as Lottomatica Roma shocked visiting Panathinaikos 85-67 in Group C on Thursday. Lottomatica did it with defense and enjoyed 18 points from sharp-shooting Allan Ray. That result left no undefeated teams in the entire Euroleague, and immediately changed Group C's look as both AXA F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid won at home to climb within a victory of Panathinaikos. Barcelona bulled over Partizan Igokea 95-69 as Roger Grimau scored 19 points, while Madrid undid Fenerbahce Ulker 87-77. The losers of those games now find Chorale Roanne and Roma challenging for fourth and fifth place. Roanne won 84-81 over visiting Brose Baskets Bamberg as top scorer Marc Salyers pumped in 28 points. Group A has a showdown in store after first-place CSKA Moscow won by an easy 99-67 against visiting Prokom Trefl Sopot, while second-place Montepaschi rallied behind Terrell McIntyre's heroics again to win 80-86 at Union Olimpija. CSKA visits Siena in Week 9. Also in Group A, Tau Ceramica downed Olympiacos 75-64 to break their third-place tie as Mirza Teletovic erupted for 19 points. Olympiacos finds itself tied for fourth now with Zalgiris, which celebrated a 50 Year tribute to its legends by blowing out Virtus VidiVici Bologna 102-82 as all-time top scorer Marcus Brown erupted for 31 points, including 7 three-pointers. Group B changed little as all three tri-leaders won, as did the closest team to them. Unicaja manhandled visiting Aris TT Bank with defense, winning 73-52 as Marcus Haislip posted 18 points. Lietuvos Rytas shook off visiting Armani Jeans Milano by 75-62 as Marijonas Petravicius put in 17 points. And Maccabi Tel Aviv took its fourth consecutive victory, 90-99 at Le Mans, with David Bluthenthal scoring 20. All three will feel the breath on their necks of Efes Pilsen, which blasted visiting Cibona 100-74 as Drew Nicholas had 20 points.
CSKA Moscow routed injury-plagued Prokom Trefl Sopot 99-67 to remain in control in Group A. David Andersen paced the winners with a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Theo Papaloukas returned for CSKA, contributing 5 assists in 16 minutes. Prokom played without Milan Gurovic, Tomas Masiulis and Tomas Van den Spiegel. The victory was CSKA’s 22nd consecutive victory at Universal Sports Hall.
Tau Ceramica bounced back from its first Euroleague home loss in over two years by downing Olympiacos Piraeus 75-64 on Wednesday at the Fernando Buesa Arena. Tau used its defense to hold Olympiacos to just 5 fourth-quarter points en route to victory. Mirza Teletovic matched his season-high from Week 1 to lead Tau with 19 points. Tau has now won four of its last five against Olympiacos.
Terrell McIntyre hit 4 three-pointers in the last 5 minutes and scored 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter to lead Montepaschi Siena to a come-from-behind 80-86 victory over Union Olimpija. The win was the Italian champs’ fourth straight in the Euroleague and was their highest-scoring road performance since netting 88 in a loss at Maccabi in November 2004.
Marcus Brown matched his Euroleague career-high with 31 points as Zalgiris Kaunas remained perfect at home this season with a 102-82 victory over Virtus VidiVici Bologna. Brown made 7 of 9 three-pointers as he matched his career high set nearly six years ago. Zalgiris center Eurelijus Zukauskas said of Brown’s performance: “I’d rather stay on defense all the time because there is nothing to do on offense when he plays like that.”
Unicaja spanked Aris TT Bank 73-52 to retain a share of first place in Group B. The victory was Unicaja’s 12th consecutive Euroleague win at the Martin Carpena Arena and its best defensive performance in European competition since beating Hemofarm 77-44 in the first leg of the 2001 Korac Cup final. Carlos Cabezas and Berni Rodriguez are the only players to take part in both games.
Lietuvos Rytas remained part of the three-way tie for first place in Group B after turning back visiting Armani Jeans Milano 75-62. Marijonas Petravicius led L. Rytas offensively with 17 points on near-perfect shooting. The big man is now averaging 22.5 points on 84.2% shooting against Milano this seasons, but just 13 points per game against the rest of the Euroleague.
Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv trounced Le Mans Sarthe Basket 91-99 for its fourth consecutive Euroleague win. It is Maccabi’s longest winning streak since taking six in a row between March 2 and April 4, 2006. David Bluthenthal scored 16 of his team-high 20 points in the third quarter as Maccabi pulled away. Nicolas Batum finished with a career-high 24 points and Raviv Limonad had 21 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists - all season-highs – for winless Le Mans.
 Efes Pilsen reached the 100-point mark for the first time in over three years with a 100-74 thumping of Cibona Zagreb. Efes’s fourth win in its last five games left the club one victory behind the Group B co-leaders. Drew Nicholas shook off a hand injury to lead five Efes scorers in double figures with 20 points. The last time Efes reached 100 was in December 2004, when it thrashed Olympiacos 59-110 in Greece.
Lottomatica Roma handed defending Euroleague champion Panathinaikos its first loss of the season 85-67. The hosts limited the Greens to just 19 second-half points and went on a decisive 17-0 run at the start of the third quarter to take control for good. It was Panathinaikos first loss in 11 games since the end of the Top 16 last season. It was also the first time Roma defeated a reigning Euroleague champion since beating Virtus Bologna in the Italian League in March 2002.
AXA FC Barcelona thrashed Partizan Igokea 95-69 to move within one win of first place in Group C after eight games. Roger Grimau paced the winners with 19 points – his highest scoring effort since posting 21 in a March 2005 game against Scavolini Pesaro. Barca attacked Partizan’s star center Nikola Pekovic from the start and limited him to 7 points as he fouled out in 18 minutes.
 Chorale Roanne registered its second consecutive win and rejoined the
Top 16 race in Group C by edging Brose Baskets Bamberg 84-81 as Marc
Salyers drilled 6 three-pointers on his way to 28 points, 7 rebounds
and weekly MVP Honors. Salyers and teammate Brion Rush, who scored 25
this week, are the highest scoring duo in the Euroleague with a
combined 41.6 points per game – more than half of Roanne’s points this
season.
Real Madrid topped Fenerbahce Ulker 87-77 in the Spanish capital to keep itself strong in the fight for the top spot in Group C. The hosts, who had all 12 players score, outrebounded Fener 34-17. Felipe Reyes led the winners with 17 points. Madrid has now won eight straight Euroleague home games.
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Friday, December 14, 2007
Euroleague.net
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