Check out the latest preseason results for the 18 teams of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, whose opening day is October 6.
Preseason: Milan, Greens, Zvezda, Reds win
In the first duel of the night between Turkish Airlines EuroLeague teams, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan got the best of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, 71-80, in the semis of the Trophy Pavlos Giannakopoulos in Athens, Greece. Maccabi started strong with good accuracy in offense to take the first period, 24-15. In the second quarter, Milan reacted led by Naz Mitrou-Long, already at 11 points after two quarters, to make it a 8-22 partial score for a 32-37 at the break. In the third quarter, Milan stayed in the driver's seat for a 18-41 run that combined the second and third quarters. In the final period, Maccabi's offense worked again but in defense it was not enough to stop Milan from winning the game and advancing to the final. Mitrou-Long led the winners with 19 points including 4 threes, Deshaun Thomas added 15 and Giampaolo Ricci contributed 13. For Maccabi, Darrun Hilliard led the losing effort with his 18 points, Alex Poythress posted 12 plus 6 rebounds and Wade Baldwin and Austin Hollins contributed 11 points apiece.
In the second EuroLeague duel of the evening in Athens, Panathinaikos Athens defeated defending champs Anadolu Efes Istanbul, 86-71, and will play Milan in the tournament final on Saturday evening. For the Greens, four players scored 14 points each to lead the win: Nate Wolters, Paris Lee, Georgios Papagiannis -he added 6 rebounds- and Arturas Gudaitis, while Georgios Kalaitzakis added 12 and Derrick Williams, 10. Ante Zizic led Efes with 15 points and 6 rebounds, Vasilije Micic added 15 points and Tibor Pleiss contributed 11. Efes will be playing Maccabi in the third place game also on Saturday. Panathinaikos won all quarters but the third, but with a great defensive effort it managed to keep Efes under 20 points in all those quarters. A 56% in two-point shots did the rest for the Greens.
Olympiacos Piraeus defeated Holon 88-77 on Friday night and advanced to the final game of the Neofytos Chandriotis Tournament in Cyprus, where it will play Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. The Reds controlled the game throughout the first 30 minutes starting with a 13-2, that evolved into a 65-59 lead after three quarters. However, Holon reacted with a 0-8 run in 4 minutes to put them in the lead, but Olympiacos reacted during the remaining minutes through Moustapha Fall and secured the win. Alec Peters led the Reds with 15 points, Giannoulis Larentzakis added 13 and Kostas Papanikolaou and Shaquielle McKissic posted 10 apiece.
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade escaped with a 73-72 win over Peristeri in the semifinals of the Neofytos Chandriotis Tournament in Cyprus. Ognjen Dobric led the winners with 16 points, Jaylen Adams added 15, Ben Bentil had 13 and Nikola Ivanovic posted 12.
Prometey Slobozhanske managed to come up with a huge upset on Friday night in Turkey by defeating Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, 89-93, in the semifinals of the Pinar Cup. The game was close in the first quarter but Prometey pulled away hard and managed to build a 59-71 lead after three quarters. Sehmus Hazer led Fenerbahce with 22 points and Johnathan Motley added 12.
Valencia Basket fell to Obradoiro in the Valencia City Trophy, 78-88, in the game that served as the official presentation of the team in front of its fans and the last test of the preseason before the start of the official games. Newcomers Chris Jones and Kyle Alexander led Valencia in the losing effort with 13 points apiece, while another new face, John Radebaugh, contributed 10. Marek Blazevic led the winners with 22 points. Valencia only won the first quarter by 3 points, but after that, it was all Obradoiro.