Friday night of Round 26, the last games before the only one-week break of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, proved a great night to be away from home as all three visiting teams pulled off victories, none bigger than the El Clásico result that flipped first place.
Round 26, Friday: Barca takes back first place on night of road warriors!
Real Madrid 68-86 FC Barcelona
Barcelona led every step of the way to defeat archrival Real 68-86 on the road for a two-game El Clásico sweep. Both teams now have 20-5 records, but Barca takes over the top spot based on those two victories. Nicolas Laprovittola scored 12 of his game-high 20 points as Barca took led by as much as 10-36 early in the second quarter. Dante Exum added 13 for the winners. Walter Tavares had 25 points on 10-for-10 shooting for Madrid.
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 63-76 Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
Panathinaikos led from tipoff to buzzer but had to beat back late ASVEL rallies to win 63-76 on the road. The Greens lifted their record to 6-17 with their first road win after 11 defeats. ASVEL fell to 9-16. Okaro White led Panathinaikos with 19 points while Nemanja Nedovic had 18 before leaving with a late injury. Dylan Osetkowski scored 18 for ASVEL.
UNICS Kazan 77-84 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
Zvezda returned to winning ways by downing UNICS 77-84 in comeback fashion on the road. Zvezda improved its record to 9-14 while UNICS dropped to 13-11 and seventh place with its fourth loss in five games. UNICS had its biggest lead, 65-56, in the last minute of the third quarter, after which Zvezda outscored the hosts 12-28. Nikola Kalinic paced the winners with 20 points and Nate Wolters added Mario Hezonja led UNICS with 18 points.