


Olympiacos Piraeus retained first place in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with a hard-earned 81-73 home win over local rival Panathinaikos Athens. The Reds improved to a league-best 23-9, while the Greens dropped to 11-21.
There was little between the teams in the first half, with no leads larger than 6 points. Olympiacos took control in the third period and stayed ahead the rest of the way, despite Panathinaikos fighting hard. Tarik Black led the way with 21 points, while Thomas Walkup had 11 points, 13 assists and 7 rebounds. Sasha Vezenkov scored 19 for the Reds. Paris Lee paced Panathinaikos with 15 points, Dwayne Bacon added 14 and Arturas Gudaitis scored 12.
Vezenkov, Moustapha Fall, Derrick Williams, Bacon and Gudaitis all netted twice in a closely contested first quarter, which ended 16-17.
Black scored all the points in a 9-0 run, but Marius Grigonis hit a pair of triples to tie it up, 25-25. Two scores from Gudaitis pushed the Greens ahead, and 5 points from Bacon made it 33-38 at the break.
Vezenkov scored the first 6 points of the second half, and a three-point play by Shaquielle McKissic made it 44-39. Kostas Papanikolaou finally scored the host’s first three-pointer, and it was 57-48 at the end of the third.
Triples from Lee and Eleftherios Mantzoukas saw Panathinaikos start the final period with a 0-8 run, 57-56, but the Reds responded and a three-point play by Kostas Sloukas made it 68-62. Three more baskets from Black protected the lead, as Olympiacos went on to celebrate doing the double over its archrival.