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The last week of Euroleague games in 2007 turned out to be a great one for road teams, as no less than eight invaded some of the toughest home arenas and walked away with victories to boost their chances before a one week end-of-year holiday break. Last year's finalists, champion Panathinaikos and runner-up CSKA Moscow, will head into 2008 as exclusive group leaders with the best records so far, 8-1 each, after winning away from home. CSKA rallied from 13 points down in the second half to stop Montepaschi 66-69 in Siena, Italy, good enough to ensure sole possession of first place in Group A for awhile. Ramunas Siskauskas was the hero for CSKA, with 18 points and a big block to avoid overtime. Another road winner in Group A was Tau Ceramica, which toppled host Virtus VidiVici Bologna 69-85 behind 25 points and 12 rebounds from Tiago Splitter. Tau ties Montepaschi for second place while Zalgiris Kaunas, which got by host Prokom Trefl 80-85, and Olympiacos, a blowout 113-80 home winner over Union Olimpija, tie for fourth place. In Group B, there are a pair of leaders, both of whom won road games where no other team had done so previously this season. In Tel Aviv, Lietuvos Rytas rallied to defeat host Maccabi Elite 82-87 in a thriller as Hollis Price canned 2 late triples and Chuck Eidsen poured in 28 points. Unicaja kept its share of first place by defeating Cibona 62-76 with defense and balanced scoring, including 15 points each from Berni Rodriguez, Jiri Welsch and Marcus Haislip, to become the first road winner in Zagreb this season. Efes Pilsen, which topped Armani Jeans 73-76 in Milan, joins Maccabi in a tie for third place, while Aris holds fifth place after stopping Le Mans 93-74 at home. Panathinaikos used stifling defense early to defeat Brose Baskets 58-72 in Bamberg, Germany, staying a step ahead of the pack in Group C. Sarunas Jasikevicius canned 11 of 11 free throws among his 21 points for the Greens. The big news in Group C saw Lottomatica Roma, which had ended the undefeated streak of Panathinaikos a week earlier, knock off visiting Real Madrid behind 17 points each from Erazem Lorbek and Roberto Gabini. AXA F.C. Barcelona still holds second place in Group C after surging past host Fenerbahce Ulker 78-85 as Jaka Lakovic pumped in 22 points, including a key triple near the finish. Fenerbahce is now tied in fourth place with Partizan, an 82-76 home winner over Chorale Roanne 82-76 as Nikola Pekovic piled up 26 points and 16 rebounds. After a free week, Euroleague action returns right after the turn of the new year with Week 10 regular season games on January 2 and 3.
CSKA Moscow now leads Group A by two games after becoming the first team to win in Siena this season. CSKA’s 66-69 victory over Montepaschi was the team’s sixth straight – the longest current streak in the league. Ramunas Siskauskas was the hero for CSKA with 18 points, while veteran guard J.R. Holden will remember this as the game in which he moved into third place on the all-time Euroleague scoring charts with 1,863 points.
Tiago Splitter celebrated a night to remember as he led Tau Ceramica to a 69-85 road win at Virtus VidiVici Bologna. Splitter had career-highs of 25 points and 6 steals and matched a career-best with 12 rebounds en route to a 42 index and MVP of the week honors. It was the first time he had even reached the 20-point barrier in 88 career Euroleague games.
Olympiacos routed Union Olimpija 113-80 for it’s highest-scoring effort ever in more than 350 European games dating back to 1960. Georgios Printezis and Kostas Vasiliadis each scored a Euroleague career-high 21 for the Reds, who scored at least 25 points in every period. Olympiacos, which scored 109 earlier this season, is averaging 102.2 points per game at home.
Zalgiris Kaunas affirmed its status as a serious Top 16 challenger by picking up its first road win of the season, 80-85 at Prokom Trefl Sopot. Marko Popovic came up big down the stretch and DeJuan Collins made his free throws to help the Lithuanian champs win in Poland for the first time since beating Mazowiecki KS 76-90 in the Saporta Cup a decade ago. That team, featuring a young Tomas Masiulis (now with Prokom) and a young Eurelijus Zukauskas (now back with Zalgiris), went on to win the 1998 Saporta Cup.
 Lietuvos Rytas outscored Maccabi Elite 2-8 behind a pair of clutch triples from Hollis Price in the last two minutes to win in Tel Aviv 82-87. The win knocked Maccabi from a tie for first in Group B, which is now shared by L. Rytas and Unicaja. Chuck Eidson scored 28 to lead L. Rytas, which is now 4-0 all-time against Maccabi – the best record of any team against the Israeli champs.
Unicaja took off with a 0-13 run in the closing minutes to beat Cibona 62-76 in Zagreb. After Cibona tied the game 57-57, Marcus Haislip and Carlos Cabezas stepped up in the game-winning run that kept Unicaja tied for first in Group B and handed Cibona its first home loss of the season.
Aris TT Bank kept Le Mans winless with a 93-74 victory in Thessaloniki, Greece. Bracey Wright paced the winners with 27 points and Reyshawn Terry posted a double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds for Aris, which lost Jeremiah Massey to injury during the game. Aris now 9-3 in Euroleague regular season home games over the past two seasons.
Scoonie Penn remained hot, scoring all of his 15 points in the second half, as Efes Pilsen picked up its third consecutive win by edging Armani Jeans 73-76 in Milano, Italy. Kenny Gregory was 5 for 6 from downtown for 20 points to lead Efes. Meanwhile pen is averaging 14.3 points, 5.7 assists and 2 steals in his team’s modest winning streak after failing to score more than 5 points or dish more than 3 assists in any of his first six appearances this season.
Panathinaikos bounced back from its first loss of the season and remained atop the Group C standings by downing Brose Baskets 58-72 in Bamberg, Germany. Sarunas Jasikevicius led the Greens with 21 points on 11-for-11 free-throw shooting and 5 assists off the Panathinaikos bench. The defending champs improved to 6-3 all-time in games in Germany.
Lottomatica Roma claimed a second major scalp in as many weeks and rejoined the Top 16 race in Group C by edging Real Madrid 69-64 at home in the Italian capital. After taking down previously unbeaten Panathinaikos a week earlier, Roma can boast victories over last season's Euroleague and ULEB Cup champions in a span of just eight days. Allan Ray's three-pointer with 45 seconds remaining gave Roma the lead for good and his late free throws help wrap it up. Roberto Gabini and Erazem Lorbek paced the winners each with 17 points.
 Nikola Pekovic had another huge evening, including 7 points during a 12-1 fourth quarter run to lead Partizan Igokea to an 82-76 home win over Chorale Roanne. Pekovic finished with 26 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and 4 blocked shots for the Serbian champs, who stopped a three-game slide. With 180 points in nine games this season, Pekovic has only 14 less than he did in his first 34 Euroleague games.
AXA FC Barcelona held onto its share of second place in Group C by turning back late-charging Fenerbahce Ulker 78-85 on the road in Istanbul. Jaka Lakovic led the winners with 22 points. Lakovic drilled 5 three-pointers to surpass former Barcelona teammate Juan Carlos Navarro for third on the Euroleague all-time list with 251. Barca’s other starting guard, Gianluca Basile, tops that list with 294.
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Friday, December 21, 2007
Euroleague.net
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