This is the final double-round week before the holidays
Game Center: Efes, Olympiacos wrap Round 16 with wins
Makale
8 Dk okuma
Wednesday, December 18
Anadolu Efes Istanbul 89-67 Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade
Efes outlasted Zvezda to take a valuable home win thanks to a strong second half. Efes improved to 9-7, while Zvezda dropped to 8-8. Zvezda dominated the opening quarter to take a double-digit lead, but Efes fought back and it was 36-42 at the break. The hosts continued their recovery to go ahead in the third quarter and a 12-0 run early in the fourth sealed the win. Elijah Bryant and Dan Oturu paced Efes with 17 points apiece and Shane Larkin dished 12 assists. Filip Petrusev top scored for Zvezda with 15 points.
Olympiacos Piraeus 87-77 Virtus Segafredo Bologna
Olympiacos improved to 10-6 with a workmanlike 87-77 home win over Virtus Segafredo Bologna (3-13), ramping up its defense in the second half after spilling an 18-point lead in the first. Sasha Vezenkov capped a fine individual performance with a game-high 27 points and 10 rebounds for an impressive double-double, while Evan Fournier added 20 points, 7 assists and 5 boards for the home team. Alec Peters chipped in with 12 points and 8 rebounds. Marco Belinelli paced Virtus on 20 points and Matt Morgan added 15 for the visitors, who staged a brief second-quarter comeback to turn a 25-7 deficit into a 43-46 lead at halftime, but were unable to keep up their momentum after the interval.
Tuesday, December 17
AS Monaco 93-74 FC Bayern Munich
Monaco overcame a double-digit first-half deficit and then used a big third quarter en route to a 93-74 win against the visiting Bayern. Monaco won its third straight game and improved to 11-5. For Bayern, which dropped to 10-6, this is its fourth consecutive road loss. Bayern led by 11 points at the start of the second quarter, but Monaco turned the game around in the second, then used a 20-5 run in the third to pull away for good. Georgios Papagiannis paced Monaco with 14 points. Mike James scored 13, Matthew Strazel and Jordan Loyd had 11 apiece, and Elie Okobo netted 10 points in the win. Carsen Edwards had 17 points for the visitors, Johannes Voigtmann posted 13 and Danko Brankovic scored 11 points in a losing effort.
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 85-95 Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
Baskonia used a 0-10 run to close the first quarter and never looked back en route to victory over Maccabi on Tuesday night at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade. The winners outrebounded Maccabi 25-40 and shot 12 for 26 from downtown (46.2%) in two of the keys to the victory that lifted Baskonia’s record to 7-9, while dropping Maccabi to 4-12. Markus Howard led the way with 28 points on 6-of-9 three-point shooting and Chima Moneke tallied 17 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists to lead Baskonia. Rokas Jokubaitis paced Maccabi with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists and Roman Sorkin also scored 22.
Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens 103-74 EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
Panathinaikos left no doubt about its quality by thrashing Milan 103-74 at OAKA in Round 16 on Tuesday. Both teams now have a 9-7 record in the standings, with Panathinaikos stopping Milan's six-game winning streak. Kendrick Nunn paced the winners with a career-high and EuroLeague season-high 39 points. He set an all-time EuroLeague record with 7 three-pointers in the first quarter. Jerian Grant added 12 points for Panathinaikos. Nikola Mirotic led Milan with 16 points. Neno Dimitrijevic added 15 while Nico Mannion and Shavon Shields each had 11 for the guests.
FC Barcelona 90-63 Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
Barcelona gave its under-pressure head coach Joan Penarroya some breathing space and improved to 9-7 in the EuroLeague with a 90-63 home drubbing of Fenerbahce (10-6) on the back of a game-high 25 points from Kevin Punter. Justin Anderson was perfect from the floor and the foul line as he added 18 points for the home team while Jabari Parker chipped in with 15 points and 7 boards.
Paris Basketball 85-96 Real Madrid
Real Madrid ended its three-game losing streak by beating Paris 85-96 on Tuesday night at Adidas Arena. With their top scorer and best assist provider TJ Shorts missing out due to illness, the hosts saw Real Madrid lead for the final 32 minutes of the duel despite Maodo Lo stepping up big time in his teammate's absence. With this win, Los Blancos improved its record to 7-9, with Paris dropping to 11-5. Facundo Campazzo paced Real Madrid with 19 points, Mario Hezonja scored 17, Dzanan Musa had 12 and Gabriel Deck added 11. Alberto Abalde and Walter Tavares netted 10 points each, with the latter completing a double-double by recording 14 rebounds. Lo led all scorers with a season-high 30 points, but it wasn’t enough. Nadir Hifi scored 21 points and Collin Malcolm had 11 in a losing effort.
ALBA Berlin 66-86 Zalgiris Kaunas
Zalgiris extended its winning streak to three games as it defeated ALBA 66-86 on the road. Zalgiris took control of the game with a 2-22 run spanning the first two quarters to improve to 10-6, including 4-4 away from home. Sylvain Francisco paced the Lithuanian side with 16 points while Lonnie Walker picked up 13 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists for Zalgiris, which has won two straight road games after a previous three-game road losing skid. ALBA has now lost three in a row and six of its last seven from 3-13 record. David McCormack scored a career-high 19 points and Yanni Wetzell added 15 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in the loss.