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Just two weeks into the Top 16, first place in each and every group is spoken for. Montepaschi, Tau Ceramica, Real Madrid and CSKA are all undefeated and have some good history on their side. In the three-year playoff era until now, only two teams that started the Top 16 with two victories ever missed the next round. Montepaschi lead Group D after upending Efes Pilsen 76-79 in overtime in Istanbul as Bootsy Thornton led the winners with 18 points, including an acrobatic game-clincher in overtime. Tau Ceramica is alone atop Group E after burying Fenerbahce Ulker 103-84 as seven players scored in double figures. Tau made an incredible 59.4% of its two-pointers, 61.9% of its triples and 90.9% of its free throws. Real Madrid owns Group F now after dumping Olympiacos 80-70 as Alex Mumbru led the way with 16 points. And CSKA Moscow is first in Group G after whipping Barcelona 72-55 as David Andersen scored 20 points. Week 2 also served to lift one team from each group into the win column. In Group D, defending champion Panathinaikos escaped an 0-2 start by rallying to defeat Partizan Igokea 67-65 at home in Athens. In Group E, Lietuvos Rytas prevailed 89-74 over Aris TT Bank as Chuck Eidson and Mindaugas Lukauskis had 18 points each. In Group F, Zalgiris walloped Maccabi Elite 101-82 behind 22 points from Jonas Maciulis to end that team's 15-game, four-year Top 16 losing streak. And in Group G, Lottomatica Roma beat Unicaja 75-67 as Roko-Leni Ukic pumped in 19 points. The 0-2 teams whose backs are against the wall now are, in group order, Partizan, Aris, Olympiacos and Unicaja. Tied in second place with this week's first-game winners, again in group order, are Efes Pilsen, Fenerbahce Ulker, Maccabi and Barcelona. All of which promises prolonged battles for qualification to the playoffs in the remaining four weeks of the Top 16.
Panathinaikos needed to rally to edge Partizan Igokea 67-65. It was the defending champs’ third win over Partizan this season and those three have come by a total of 7 points. The visitors led much of the way before the Greens rallied in the fourth quarter and Mike Batiste hit free throws and had a key block on Milenko Tepic in the final 19.5 seconds to win it. Vassilis Spanoulis paced the winners with 20.
Montepaschi Siena scored a big road win over Efes Pilsen, 76-79, in overtime in Istanbul in the first ever meeting between the teams. Some late three-point shooting allowed the Italian champs to come back and tie at 69-69 at the end of regulation. After the hosts took the lead in the extra period, Ksistof Lavrinovic made 3 of 4 free throws and Bootsy Thornton sank an acrobatic jumper for the final score, as Efes missed two chances to tie it on the game's final possession.
Tau Ceramica continued its dominant play at home by thrashing Fenerbahce Ulker 103-84 at the Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria, Spain. Tau has now won 35 of its last 36 home games and 12 straight Top 16 home games over the past four years. Sergi Vidal and Zoran Planinic paced seven scorers in double figures for the winners each with 14 points apiece. Pete Mickeal left the game with an injury and it was later revealed that he’ll miss three weeks.
Lietuvos Rytas thrashed Aris TT Bank 89-74 in front of another sellout crowd at Siemens Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania. L. Rytas beat Aris for the fourth straight time and third this season, with different players leading the team in scoring in each of those wins. This time Chuck Eidson and Mindaugas Lukauskis led the winners with 18 points apiece. The 89 points scored was L. Rytas’s best offensive output since posting 93 in a regular season Week 7 home win against Cibona.
Real Madrid became the team to beat in Group F after downing Olympiacos 80-70 thanks to another scrappy showing from Alex Mumbru. The Spanish champs were 14 of 32 from downtown and got 35 points off the bench to cruise to their seventh consecutive win. It was also Madrid's 12th straight home win in the Euroleague and its 20th in a row in European competition dating back to February 2006, when it lost to Panathinaikos in the final game of the Euroleague regular season.
Zalgiris Kaunas ended a 15-game Top 16 losing streak by pounding Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv 101-82 on Thursday night at the S. Darius and S. Girenas Sport Center. The Lithuanian champs took 20 offensive rebounds and won the battle of the boards 45-25. Zalgiris hadn't won a Top 16 game since beating Ulker Istanbul on March 24, 2004, including a devastating loss at Maccabi in the Top 16 finale on Derrick Sharp’s famous miracle three-pointer that cost the Lithuanian champs a spot in the Final Four.
CSKA Moscow took the big showdown between undefeated teams in Group G by downing AXA FC Barcelona 72-55. The Russian champs extended their home-court winning streak to 27 games dating back to the first game of 2006. It was also CSKA's fourth consecutive victory over Barcelona. David Andersen led the winners with 20 points and 8 rebounds. The game featured the top three three-point shooters in Euroleague Basketball history: Barca's Gianluca Basile (302), CSKA's J.R. Holden (290) and Barca's Jaka Lakovic (264). CSKA's Trajan Langdon (228) is sixth on that list.
Lottomatica Roma put on a defensive show to beat Unicaja 75-67 with head coach Jasmin Repesa at home with the flu. Assistant coach Guido Saibene guided Roma, which had 17 steals, including 8 from rookie Ibrahim Jaaber, and 6 blocked shots, including 2 from point guard Roko-Leni Ukic, to record its first win of the Top 16. Ukic led Roma with 19 points.
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Friday, February 22, 2008
Euroleague.net
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