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Game Center: Olympiacos, Monaco close 2023 in style with 20-point wins
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7 Mins read
Friday, December 29
ALBA Berlin 67-94 Olympiacos Piraeus
Olympiacos Piraeus overcame early struggles to cruise to a comfortable road win, 67-94, over ALBA Berlin in Round 17 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season. The Reds improved to 9-8 while ALBA dropped to 3-14 at the midway point of the regular season. The hosts had the better of the opening exchanges to lead by 11 points midway through the second quarter, but Olympiacos soon improved its defense and started to take over. The visitor surged into a double-digit lead early in the third quarter and was never troubled again.
AS Monaco Basket (10-7) romped to an impressive 91-71 home win over FC Barcelona (11-6) in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague campaign, drawing a close to the first half of the regular season with a brilliant performance to boost its hopes of finishing in the top six. The result epitomized Barca's patchy form, as the Spanish side slipped to its third defeat in the last six games after a bloodless performance against a galvanized home side.
Anadolu Efes Istanbul 84-89 Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
Fenerbahce earned bragging rights in the Istanbul Derby by beating host Efes 84-89 to raise its record to 10-7 and a perfect 4-0 under Sarunas Jasikevicius while Efes dropped to 7-10. Nigel Hayes-Davis led Fenerbahce with 24 points while Nick Calathes added 17, including a late dagger three-pointer, and Georgios Papagiannis chipped in 12. Efes guard Shane Larkin was the game's top scorer with 28 points. Dan Oturu netted 19 and Rodrigue Beaubois 10 in a losing effort.
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade 75-77 Virtus Segafredo Bologna
In a thriller that came down to the final shot, Virtus edged Partizan 75-77 in the Serbian capital to hold on to at least a share of second place at 12-5. Partizan dropped to 9-8. Iffe Lundberg paced the winners with 16 points. Marco Belinelli added 14 while Toko Shengelia, Awudu Abass and Daniel Hackett each had 10 for Virtus. James Nunnally led Partizan with 19 points. Kevin Punter and Ognjen Jaramaz each scored 12 while Frank Kaminsky and Bruno Caboclo had 10 apiece for the hosts.
Zalgiris Kaunas 70-78 Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
Maccabi bounced back from last week's defeat to beat host Zalgiris 70-78 and improved to a 10-7 record Zalgiris dropped to 5-12. Josh Nebo led all scorers with a career-high 22 points. Tamir Blatt scored 14, with Lorenzo Brown, Roman Sorkin and Bonzie Colson adding 11 each. As for Zalgiris, Keenan Evans scored a team-high 18 points and Edmond Sumner added 14. Zalgiris led 33-32 at halftime but Maccabi dominated the third quarter, 16-29, and cruised after that to the win.
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 76-77 Real Madrid
Standings leader Real used a 0-16 start to the fourth quarter to eke out a 76-77 win at last-place ASVEL. Real watched ASVEL cut the game to one point in the closing minute but improved to 16-1. Vincent Poirier had 17 points and Edy Tavares scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the winning side. ASVEL dropped its ninth straight game for a 2-15 record despite Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot’s 20 points with Paris Lee chipping in 17 points and 7 assists in the loss.
Panathinaikos Aktor Athens 82-65 Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade
Panathinaikos improved to 10-7 with a comfortable home win over Zvezda, staying on course to reach the post-season after the Greek giant stifled out the visitors with ironclad defense from start to finish. Dinos Mitoglou paced Panathinaikos with 15 points, Jerian Grant scored 14 and Mathias Lessort chopped in with 13 as the Greens racked up their fourth straight win to remain firmly in the upper half of the table. At the other end, Nemanja Nedovic and Joel Bolomboy posted 15 points each for Zvezda.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 76-67 Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
Milan returned to winning ways by topping Baskonia at home on Thursday. Milan improved to 7-10 in the standings while Baskonia dropped to 9-8. Nicolo Melli led the winners with 21 points and 3 blocks. Johannes Voigtmann posted a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds while Diego Flaccadori had 14 points for Milan. Chima Moneke led Baskonia with 14 points. Tadas Sedekerskis added 12 while Vanja Marinkovic had 10 for the guests.
FC Bayern Munich 85-84 Valencia Basket
Bayern continued its impressive record at BMW Park by beating Valencia. Bayern improved to 6-2 on its home floor and 8-9 overall, while Valencia fell to 9-8. Leandro Bolmaro and Devin Booker paced Bayern with 13 points apiece. Vladimir Lucic and Andreas Obst each had 12, Danko Brankovic added 11 and Carsen Edwards contributed 10 in the win. For Valencia, Brandon Davies scored a game-high 21 points and Chris Jones finished with 19, but it proved to be in vain.