December 26, 2011 - bwin MVP for December: Nikola Mirotic, Real Madrid
December
2011 may go down in history as the month that Nikola Mirotic completed
his upgrade from prominent role player to a bonafide ace. The Real
Madrid forward has long been seen as a promising talent, hence his
choice as the 2011 Rising Star Trophy winner. But in four games in
December, Mirotic dominated like never before in leading his team to a
perfect record with wins over three other Turkish Airlines Euroleague
Top 16 teams to clinch first place in Group C and a No. 1 seed in the
Top 16 Draw. For his outstanding performances in leading his team to
outstanding results, Mirotic has become Euroleague Basketball's choice
as bwin MVP for December. Read more here.
December 23, 2011 - Week 10 bwin MVP: Pietro Aradori, Montepaschi Siena
For
the second week in a row, Montepaschi Siena guard Pietro Aradori took
advantage of an opportunity to play extended minutes and proceeded to
improve his Euroleague career highs in every major statistical category
in leading the Italian champions to victory. What’s more, Aradori’s
performance against Asseco Prokom on Wednesday earned him Week 10 bwin
MVP honors. Aradori is only two weeks past his 23rd birthday and now
showing signs of stardom predicted when he was a Euroleague rookie five
seasons ago. After leading the team to a come-from-behind victory over
previously undefeated FC Barcelona Regal in Week 9, Aradori shined even
brighter on the road in Poland with 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals
– all career bests – en route to a performance index rating of 33,
which was the best seen in the Euroleague on the final games of the
2011-12 regular season. Read more here.
December 22, 2011 - Week 10
Belgacom Spirou 69 - 86 Maccabi Electra
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv soundly
defeated Belgacom Spirou on the road Thursday night 69-86 at the
SpirouDome in Charleroi, Belgium led by Keith Langford’s season-high 20
points. Maccabi enters the Top 16 Draw as a No. 2 seed after finishing
Group B with a 7-3 record, while Spirou, which was already eliminated,
closed the season at 2-8. The hosts, looking for a morale-building
finale before their home fans, stayed close until the third quarter
when Maccabi took off on a 15-point surge that put the game out of
reach. David Blu contributed 13 points and 3 steals for the winners,
Guy Pninin put in 11 points and Devin Smith and Theodoros Papaloukas
added 9 apiece. Caleb Green led the Belgian champs with 16 points,
including 3 of 5 from deep, Demond Mallet netted 13 and Chris Hill
added 10. Read more here.
Partizan mt:s 66 - 72 EA7 Emporio Armani
A
classic showdown on Thursday night in Pionir Arena took place for a Top
16 spot, and when the dust settled EA7 Emporio Armani Milan had topped
hosting Partizan mt:s by 66-72 in the Game of the Week. Milano needed
at least a 4-point win to make the Top 16 and it happened in the last
minutes. Partizan was leading by 11 points, 42-41 in the third period,
but a huge zone defense by Milano allowed them to come back and
complete the upset to deprive Partizan of a Top 16 spot for the first
time in six seasons. As such, Group C finishes with Milano and Partizan
tied for fourth place at 4-5, but the tiebreakers give Milano the edge.
Malik Hairston led the winners with his 18 points, Omar Cook added 17
and Ioannis Bourousis chipped in with 13. Read more here.
Gescrap BB 77 - 72 Caja Laboral
Gescrap
BB made club history on Thursday with a 77-72 victory over rival Caja
Laboral at Bilbao Arena to advance to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague
Top 16 for the first time ever. The result created a three-way tie
between Gescrap, Bennet Cantu and Caja Laboral with 5-5 records, but
after the tiebreaker, Bilbao was left in fourth place and Caja Laboral
in fifth, meaning it would miss the Top 16. Marko Banic shined for
Gescrap with 18 points, Janis Blums added 11 and Alex Mumbru 10. Milko
Bjelica led Caja Laboral with 15 points and 7 rebounds and Pablo
Prigioni scored 13, but Mirza Teletovic, who finished the regular
season as the Euroleague’s top scorer with 21.7 points per game, was
held to a season-low 12 points. Read more here.
Bennet Cantu 76 - 83 Fenerbahce Ulker
Fenerbahce
Ulker scored a monumental win to not only reach the Top 16, but to
climb to first place in Group A with a tough 76-83 victory at Bennet
Cantu. Oguz Savas scored a season-high 21 points to pace the Turkish
champs, who improved to 6-4 in handing Cantu its first loss of the
season. Cantu dropped to 5-5, but also heads to the next stage from
third place in the group. Bojan Bogdanovic added 19 with two crucial
three-pointers for FB Ulker and Roko Ukic added 17 - 14 of which came
in the second half. Giorgi Shermadini and Maarten Leunen scored 13
apiece for Cantu and veteran Denis Marconato added 10. Read more here.
SLUC Nancy 74 - 79 Olympiacos
Olympiacos
BC Pireaus finished second in regular season Group A by edging SLUC
Nancy 74-79 at the Palais des Sports Jean Weille in France on Thursday.
Olympiacos finished this group with a 6-4 second and was second due to
its tie-break disadvantage with Fenerbahce Ulker. As such, the Reds
avoided Montepaschi Siena, Panathinaikos BC Athens and Maccabi Electra
in the upcoming Top 16 draw, which takes place next Wednesday. Nancy
was sixth in Group A with a 3-7 record. Pero Antic led the winners with
20 points. Georgios Printezis added 18 while Kyle Hines pulled down 12
boards for Olympiacos. Jamal Shuler led Nancy with 18 points. Adrien
Moerman added 11 while Victor Samnick had 10 for the hosts. Read more here.
Anadolu Efes 66 - 75 Real Madrid
Real
Madrid dominated the second half to down Anadolu Efes 66-75 and record
its sixth straight win on Thursday at the site of the 2012 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four, the Sinan Erdem Arena in Istanbul,
Turkey. The hosts dominated early and led by 17 in the second quarter,
but the Whites closed the gap to 43-36 by halftime and outscored Efes
by 8 in each of the last two quarters to register the win and improve
to 8-2. Nikola Mirotic paced the winners with 16 points and Jaycee
Carroll, Sergio Llull and Kyle Singler added 12 apiece. Dusko Savanovic
posted 15 points and 11 rebounds for the home team, which finished the
regular season third in Group C with a 5-5 record. Read more here.
December 21, 2011
Asseco Prokom 53 - 79 Montepaschi Siena
Montepaschi Siena finished the
regular season with another strong defensive showing by crushing host
Asseco Prokom 53-79 in Gdynia, Poland, on the final day of the regular
season in Group D. It was the fourth straight victory for the depleted
by injuries Italian champions, who already secured second place in
Group D even before the game, and finished the regular season with an
8-2 record. Siena used its defense for 2-15 run during the last eight
minutes of the first half to open up a double-digit lead, and then had
a huge fourth quarter that broke the game open. Pietro Aradori led
Siena with 23 points and 7 rebounds, both career-highs. Igor Rakocevic
added 9, and David Andersen had 6 points and 7 rebounds as all 11
visiting players scored. Read more here.
FC Barcelona Regal 79 - 50 GS Medical Park
FC
Barcelona Regal bounced back from its first loss in the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague by blowing out Galatasaray Medical Park 79-50 to
finish Group D action with a victory. Barcelona proved that it did not
need all-time leading scorer Juan Carlos Navarro – out with plantar
fasciitis – in easing to a 9-1 record. Boniface Ndong led the way with
16 points – 11 of those in the third quarter – 6 rebounds and 4 blocks
while Erazem Lorbek tallied 13 points. Victor Sada chipped in 6 points,
6 rebounds and 4 assists and Marcelinho Huertas had 9 points.
Galatasaray, which had already booked a Top 16 spot by securing fourth
place regardless of the result, dropped to 4-6 in the group. Cevher
Ozer led Galatasaray with 11 points. Read more here.
Union Olimpija 63 - 76 Unics
Unics finished the
2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season in style by downing
Union Olimpija 63-76 in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Wednesday night. Unics
finished third in Group D with a 7-3 record right behind FC Barcelona
Regal and Montepaschi. Union Olimpija dropped to 1-9 and tied for fifth
place at the end of this round. Henry Domercant led the winners with 16
points. Terrell Lyday and Aleksey Savrasenko each added 14, Kelly
McCarty had 13 while Lynn Greer got 12 for Unics. Jaka Blazic led
Olimpija with 13 points. Sasu Salin and Jan Mocnik each added 11 while
Deon Thompson had 10 for the hosts. Lyday led an 0-8 opening run that
allowed Unics to get the lead for good. Unics boosted its margin to
9-25 late in the first quarter and kept a solid 29-41 margin at
halftime. Read more here.
Zalgiris Kaunas 87 - 76 KK Zagreb
Zalgiris
Kaunas routed KK Zagreb 87-76 to claim its third victory in four games
and complete an improbable comeback to reach the Top 16. The Lithuanian
champs improved to 4-6 and secured fourth place in Group B at the end
of the regular season. Zagreb got off to a fast start, but came undone
when leading scorer Krunoslav Simon limped off with an injury. Then
Sonny Weems scored 8 in a 20-3 Zalgiris charge as the hosts took take
control. A 13-2 blitz to start the second quarter made it 41-20 and
Zalgiris never looked back. Zagreb did get as close at 7 in the final
minutes, but Marko Popovic drilled a clutch triple to ice the win and
start the celebrations. Read more here.
Unicaja 83 - 91 CSKA Moscow
CSKA Moscow put the
finishing touches on just the third perfect regular season in the
Euroleague this century by beating host Unicaja 83-91 on the road in
Malaga, Spain on Wednesday. CSKA, which had already qualified for the
Top 16 and clinched first place in Group B, added a bit of history by
finishing 10-0. Only two other teams - CSKA at 14-0 in 2004-05 and
Barcelona at 10-0 in 2009-10 - finished a regular season undefeated.
CSKA made sure this time with relentless creativity from Milos
Teodosic, who registered a double-double of 18 points and 10 assists.
Nenad Krstic followed with 14 points, Anton Ponkrashov 13 and Alexey
Shved 12 for the winners. Unicaja, which is also going to the Top 16,
finishes with a 4-6 record in third place. Read more here.
Panathinaikos 71 - 66 Brose Baskets
Panathinaikos BC Athens finished the 2011-12 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague regular season with a 7-3 record by downing Brose
Baskets 71-66 in Athens, Greece on Wednesday night. Panathinaikos was
second in Group B while Brose dropped to 3-7 to be fifth and therefore
out of the Top 16. Brose needed to win and expect KK Zagreb Croatia
Osiguranje to down Zalgiris in Kaunas, Lithuania, but none of that
happened. Dimitris Diamantidis led the winners with 14 points. Ian
Vougioukas added 12 while Kostas Kaimakoglou had 11 for Panathinaikos.
Predrag Suput and Brian Roberts each had 11 points for Brose while PJ
Tucker added 10. Panathinaikos was limited to just 2-of-16 two-pointers
in the first quarter. Meanwhile, a three-pointer by Predrag Suput
sparked a 0-10 run that allowed Brose to get a double-digit margin,
12-22, after 10 minutes. Read more here.
December 21, 2011 - Game Center, RS Week 10: Four last Top 16 berths decided this week!
The 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular
season finishes this week and with four spots still available in thre
groups, everything can happen. When the dust settles on Thursday night,
16 teams will keep fighting for Euroleague glory, others will leave the
competition and everything will be ready for the Top 16 Draw, which
takes place in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday, December 28. Action
starts with six games on Wednesday and an unified scheduled per group.
At 20:00 CET, all Group B teams take center stage, as Unicaja (4-5)
hosts CSKA (9-0), Panathinaikos (6-3) welcomes Brose Baskets (3-6) and
KK Zagreb Croatia Osiguranje (2-7) visits Zalgiris (3-6). Read more here.
One
week after he was formally awarded his bwin MVP for November 2011
trophy, CSKA Moscow center Nenad Krstic was back at it. The big man was
a force inside in racking his second double-double in as many games
against defending champion Panathinaikos to lead CSKA to a convincing
91-75 victory. The result not only secured CSKA first place in Group B
and a No. 1 seed in the upcoming Top 16 Draw, but also lifted the
Russian champs to 9-0 the only team in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague
this season with a perfect record through nine games. Krstic was a
model of efficiency with 17 points on just 9 shots attempted. He was 9
for 10 from the free-throw line, grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked 1 shot
and drew 8 fouls to finish with a performance index rating of 31, which
was the best among all the players that took the court in Week 9. Read
more here.
December 15, 2011 - Week 9
Montepaschi Siena 77 - 74 FC Barcelona Regal
Montepaschi
Siena staged a dramatic come-from-behind Group D victory at home on
Thursday night to hand FC Regal Barcelona its first loss of the season,
77-74. The win gave Siena a 7-2 record versus 8-1 for Barcelona, which
still secured its status as group champion because of a greater margin
of victory against the Italian champs last month. But for injury-ridden
Siena, it was a victory to relish after falling behind 47-62 early in
the fourth quarter. With scrappy defense and clutch shooting by Igor
Rakocevic, who led the team with 21 points, and Pietro Aradori, who
added 20, Siena outscored seemingly unbeatable Barcelona 30-12 in the
final nine minutes. Read more here.
Brose Baskets 68 - 82 Zalgiris Kaunas
Zalgiris
Kaunas went to Bamberg and recorded a crucial 68-82 win against Brose
Baskets in Group B to take control of its own destiny in the final game
of the regular season. Both teams now hold a 3-6 record, but the
Lithuanian champions hold a tiebreaker and all they need is a victory
at home over KK Zagreb next week to clinch a Top 16 spot. Zalgiris led
from start to finish as it went in front early and never allowed the
home team to even tie the game. Zalgiris broke the game open with a
huge run in the second quarter that got them to 18-point advantage.
Sonny Weems and Mantas Kalnietis scored 14 points each, Marko Popovic
added 13 and Paulius Jankunas had a big game with 10 points and 14
rebounds. Read more here.
Maccabi Electra 96 - 57 Anadolu Efes
Maccabi
Electra had a resounding home win on Thursday night against Anadolu
Efes, 96-57, in the battle for second place in Group C. The game was a
close story during the first half as both teams went back and forth.
However, in the third quarter, powerful inside play and a single man,
David Blu, later allowedMaccabi to pull away for good. Now, Maccabi has
sole possession of the second place in Group C with a 6-3 record while
Efes drops to 5-4. Both teams had already advanced to the Top 16 prior
to this game. Blu led the winners with his 18 points including 4 of 6
threes. Read more here.
Olympiacos 86 - 61 Bennet Cantu
Olympiacos
improved its chances to make it to the Top 16 in difficult Group A by
thrashing already qualified Bennet Cantu 86-61 in the Pireaus, Greece
on Thursday. Olympiacos and Cantu joined Caja Laboral and Fenerbahce
Ulker in a four-way tie for first place, each with a 5-4 record.
Olympiacos will get to the Top 16 if it beats already eliminated Nancy
on the road but could also got through with loss depending on other
results. Cantu can rank anywhere from first to fourth in regular season
Group 10. Vassilis Spanoulis led the winners with 22 points. Georgios
Printezis added 16, Kyle Hines had 12 while Lazaros Papadopoulos got 10
for Olympiacos. Read more here.
Fenerbahce Ulker 70 - 80 Gescrap BB
Gescrap
BB boosted its Top 16 chances with a 70-80 road win over Fenerbahce
Ulker at Sinan Erdem Arena on Thursday night. D’Or Fischer dominated
with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks to lead the men in black as
they improved to 4-5 in tough Group A. Roger Grimau added 13 points,
Aaron Jackson tallied 11 points and 6 assists and Marko Banic scored 10
for the winners. Bilbao was determined from the start as it raced to a
6-15 opening and kept the pressure on. It was 33-44 at halftime and
then Gescrap scored the first 8 points of the second half. Fenerbahce
made small runs to get back led by Emir Preldzic, but never got close
enough to seriously threaten the outcome. Read more here.
Unics 68 - 41 Asseco Prokom
Top
16 qualifier Unics didn't have any problems to blast Asseco Prokom at
home on Thursday afternoon by 68-41. The defense of the hosts beat a
record in the process as it kept Prokom to 11 points in the first half.
The win allows already-qualified Unics to improve its record to 6-3 in
Group D while Asseco Prokom who was eliminated before this game, drops
to 1-8. Henry Domercant led the way for the winners with 18 points,
Terrell Lyday added 12 and Kelly McCarty posted 10. For Prokom, only
Jerel Blassingame scored in double digits with his 10 points. Read more
here.
December 14, 2011
KK Zagreb 67 - 82 Unicaja
Unicaja
secured a spot in the Euroelague Top 16 for the seventh season in a row
after downing KK Zagreb 67-82 in Zagreb Arena on Wednesday. Carried by
big men Luka Zoric and Joel Freeland, and with some timely fourth
quarter three-pointers by Berni Rodriguez, Unicaja moved to 4-5 in
Group B with one game to go in the regular season. Zagreb, on the other
hand, dropped to 2-7 in its first Euroleague campaign and will need a
win in Kaunas and a lot of help from other teams to sneak into the next
round. Freeland led all scorers with 17 points along with 8 rebounds.
Zoric scored 16 and collected 8 rebounds, while Rodriguez scored 11
with all 3 of his three-point shoots coming in the final quarter. Read
more here.
Caja Laboral 90 - 55 SLUC Nancy
Caja
Laboral took an important step forward in its race to make the Top 16
by crushing SLUC Nancy 90-55 in a one-sided rout on Wednesday night.
Mirza Teletovic dominated with 22 first-half points – outscoring the
opposition himself in that period as Laboral took a 42-21 lead at the
break. Then the hosts dominated the third quarter to go up by more than
40 before easing up down the stretch. The win lifted Laboral to 5-4 and
edged the club closer to the Top 16. Nancy dropped to 3-6. Brad Olseon
added 14 points for the winners, Fernando San Emeterio scored 13,
Thomas Huertel 11 and Milko Bjelica 10 in a Laboral attack that shot 15
for 31 from downtown. Read more here.
EA7 Armani 88 - 53 Belgacom Spirou
Like
a man dying of thirst who finds water, EA7-Emporio Armani Milan overran
visiting Belgacom Spirou by 88-53 on Wednesday - the hosts' biggest
Euroleague margin of victory this century - to stay in the race for the
Top 16 from Group C. Milan ended a four-game losing streak and raised
its record to 3-6, good for fifth place in the group. With fourth-place
Partizan losing at Real Madrid to fall to 4-5, Milan will go to
Belgrade in Week 10 for a winner-take-all showdown for the Group C's
last remaining Top 16 berth. Since Partizan won their first game 65-69,
Milan must win by 4 points or more next week to avoid its season being
ended. Read more here.
Real Madrid 101 - 83 Partizan mt:s
Real Madrid got closer
to become the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season Group
C champion by thrashing Partizan mt:s 101-83 in the Spanish capital on
Wednesday. Madrid improved to 7-2, registered its fifth consecutive win
and will became the Group C champion if Maccabi Electra beats Anadolu
Efes in Tel Aviv, Israel, tomorrow. Partizan dropped to 4-5 and will
advance to the Top 16 if it beats EA7 Emporio Armani or loses by up to
3 points. Jaycee Carroll led the winners with 22 points. Nikola Mirotic
added 20 while Felipe Reyes had 15 for Madrid. Milan Macvan led
Partizan with 16 points. Vladimir Lucic added 13, Rasko Katic had 12
while Acie Law got 11 for the guests. Madrid missed just two shots in
the entire first quarter, as Mirotic, Sergio Rodriguez and Sergio Llull
helped the hosts to get a 27-15 margin after 10 minutes. Read more here.
GS Medical Park 80 - 59 Union Olimpija
Galatasaray
Medical Park celebrated a spot in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top
16 in its debut season in the competition after blasting visiting Union
Olimpija 80-59 on Wednesday at Abdi Ipecki Arena in Istanbul.
Galatasaray improved to 4-5 to grab the final Top 16 berth from Group
D, thus eliminating Olimpija along the way. The undermanned visitors
showed plenty of spirit and hung close for the first half, which ended
39-35. After Deon Thompson cut the lead to 2 early in the third
quarter, Darius Songaila and Luksa Andric each scored twice in a 10-0
lead as the hosts took control for good. Read more here.
CSKA Moscow 91 - 75 Panathinaikos
In
arguably one of the best games so far in the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague, CSKA Moscow became the regular season Group B champion by
downing archrivals Panathinaikos 91-75 in the Russian capital on
Wednesday. CSKA improved to 9-0 in Group B to clinch first place and
Panathinaikos dropped to 6-3 and will rank second at the end of this
round. Nenad Krstic led the winners with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Viktor Khryapa and Aleksey Shved each added 16 points, Jamont Gordon
had 12, Ramunas Siskauskas got 10 while Milos Teodosic dished 10
assists for CSKA. Ian Vougioukas had 17 points for Panathinaikos while
Steven Smith added 11 for the Greens. Read more here.
December 12, 2011 - Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 Draw set for December 28 in Barcelona
The Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 Draw to
determine the groups that make up the second phase of competition will
take place on Wednesday, December 28, 2011, at Mediapro Auditorium in
Barcelona, Spain. The Top 16 Draw is scheduled to begin at 13:00 CET
and will be broadcast by live streaming video on Euroleague
Basketball’s official website, Euroleague.net. The draw marks the next
step for the 16 hopeful teams on the road to the 2012 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague Final Four in Istanbul. Representatives from all of the Top
16 qualifiers will attend the draw, which will determine the path their
teams must take to reach the Final Four in May. The games of the Top 16
round will be played on Wednesdays and Thursdays between January 18 and
March 1. Read more here.
December 9, 2011 - Week 8 bwin MVP: Nikola Mirotic, Real Madrid
With
the bright lights upon him in a primetime Game of the Week showdown for
first place in Group C, reigning Euroleague Rising Star Award winner
Nikola Mirotic shined brighter than ever in leading Real Madrid to a
convincing 88-64 victory over Maccabi Electra at Caja Magica on
Thursday night. In doing so, Mirotic poured in a career-high 26 points
and picked up Week 8 bwin MVP honors. Mirotic staked the Whites to
early leads with 12 first-quarter points and had 10 more in the second
quarter. His dunk early in the third quarter gave Madrid a double-digit
lead as the rest of the team joined in and put Maccabi away for good.
Read more here.
December 8, 2011 - Week 8
Olympiacos 84 - 82 Caja Laboral
Olympiacos
survived a valiant effort to hold on for an 84-82 victory over Caja
Laboral to remain alive in Group A of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.
Vassilis Spanoulis poured in 21 points and had 5 assists to lead
Olympiacos, which improved to 4-4 in the very balanced group. Kostas
Papanikolaou added 12 points off the bench, while Georgios Printezis
and Kyle Hines each scored 11 points as Olympiacos remained perfect at
home this season. Mirza Teletovic poured in a career-high 32 points for
Caja Laboral, which slipped to 4-4. Fernando San Emeterio scored 14
points and Pablo Prigioni collected 8 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and
4 steals in the loss. Read more here.
Belgacom Spirou 84 - 79 Partizan mt:s
Belgacom
Spirou foiled plans by Partizan mt:s to enter the Top 16 with an 84-79
win at the SpirouDome in Charleroi, Belgium, on Thursday night. The
victory – Spirou’s first at home this season – lifted the team’s record
to 2-6, however it was not enough to keep the Belgian champs’ hopes of
reaching the Top 16 alive. Partizan dropped to 4-4, but will advance to
the next stage with a win in either of its remaining games. looked
outmatched until the middle of the second quarter, when it used an 18-8
run to finish the half within 37-38, and then outscored Partizan 47-41
in the second half to claim the win. Read more here.
Real Madrid 88 - 64 Maccabi Electra
Real
Madrid became the exclusive leader atop the Group C standings by
downing Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 88-64 in the Spanish capital on
Thursday. Madrid improved to 6-3 to climb to first place and became the
top candidate to win Group C. Maccabi dropped to 5-3 and now ties for
second place with its next opponent, Anadolu Efes. Nikola Mirotic paced
the winners with 26 points - a new Euroleague career-best. Jaycee
Carroll added 17 while Marty Pocius had 12 for Madrid. Keith Langford
led Maccabi with 17 points. Lior Eliyahu added 11 while Richard Hendrix
had 10 for the guests. Mirotic had 12 points in the first quarter to
give Madrid a 22-15 lead after 10 minutes. Read more here.
FC Barcelona Regal 63 - 50 Unics
FC Barcelona Regal
remained undefeated one more week in Group D thanks to a convincing
63-50 home win over visiting Unics Kazan. The guests managed to stay
close throughout the first three quarters, and never surrendered
despite trailing all the time. However, a starting 12-0 in the last
period broke the game open for good. Barca improved its record to 8-0
while Unics drops to 5-3, even though both teams had already qualified
for the Top 16. Juan Carlos Navarro led the way for the winners with 13
points, Erazem Lorbek added 11 and Pete Mickeal had 10. For Unics,
Terrell Lyday posted 12 points and Lynn Greer had 10. Read more here.
GS Medical Park 63 - 67 Montepaschi Siena
Montepaschi Siena kept
its chances to win Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season Group D
by edging Galatasaray Medical Park 63-67 in Istanbul, Turkey on
Thursday. Montepaschi improved to 6-2 and will be at least third at the
end of this round. Galatasaray dropped to 3-5 but has good chances to
go to the next round. In fact, Galatasaray will advance next week if it
beats Union Olimpija at home. David Andersen led the winners with 18
points. Igor Rakocevic added 17 for Montepaschi. Jaka Lakovic led
Galatasaray with 15 points. Luksa Andric added 14 while Jamon Gordon
had 10 for the hosts. Rakocevic shined early to give Montepaschi a
18-19 edge after 10 minutes. Read more here.
Unicaja 79 - 90 Brose Baskets
Brose
Baskets took revenge on Unicaja and managed to pull a valuable road win
on Thursday night in Malaga, Spain by 79-90. The win allows Brose
Baskets to stay very much alive for the Top 16 race in Group B with a
3-5 record, the same as Unicaja, but also with the point differential
in favor of the German team. Brose Baskets managed to build a 17-point
lead, 25-42, thanks to a 2-20 run in the second quarter and a huge
Julius Jenkins. In the third quarter, Joel Freeland appeared for
Unicaja to cut the deficit down, but Casey Jacobsen and his three
threes in the last period helped the guests maintain a safe lead for
good. Jenkins led the winners with his 23 points, Marcus Slaughter
added 14, Anton Gavel had 12, Jacobsen chipped in with 11 and PJ Tucker
had a double-double of 11 points and 13 boards. Read more here.
December 7, 2011
Asseco Prokom 67 - 52 Union Olimpija
Asseco Prokom registered its first
win of the season by thrashing Union Olimpija Ljubljana 67-52 on
Wednesday night in Group D, in Gdynia, Poland. A 23-3 third quarter
made the difference for the home team after the guests led 27-30 at
halftime. Fourteen baskets from downtown by Prokom proved too much for
the visitors to overcome. Lukasz Seweryn, Przemyslaw Frasunkiewickz and
Jerel Blassingame scored 12 points apiece for the Polish champs, while
Donatas Motiejunas nailed 11 and added an all-time Euroleague
single-game record of 18 defensive rebounds. Boris Rothbart amassed 16
points and 11 boards for Olimpija, Deon Thompson and Aleksandar Capin
drained 11 apiece and Sasu Salin had 10. Read more here.
SLUC Nancy 53 - 73 Fenerbahce Ulker
Fenerbahce
Ulker got much closer to clinch a Top 16 spot in Group A by downing
Sluc Nancy 53-73 at Palais des Sports Jean Weille, France on Wednesday.
Fenerbahce moved up to 5-3 and will make it to the Top 16 with another
win - even when it could also go through it loses its two remaining
games. Nancy dropped to 3-5 and will probably need to win its two
remaining games in other to advance. James Gist led the winners with 16
points. Bojan Bogdanovic and Curtis Jerrells each added 14 for
Fenerbahce. Jamal Shuler had 17 points for Nancy while Akin Akingbala
added 11. Bogdanovic shined in the first quarter to give Fenerbahce a
15-22 margin after 10 minutes. Read more here.
Gescrap BB 64 - 67 Bennet Cantu
Bennet
Cantu took a huge step towards a Top 16 spot as Ginaluca Basile’s
buzzer-beating three-pointer gave his team a 64-67 win over Gescrap BB
in a packed Bilbao Arena. It was the fifth victory for Cantu in
balanced Group A. Cantu hit 10 three pointers and led for the great
majority of the game, often holding a double-digit lead, but it looked
as the high-drama would extend into overtime when Kostas Vasiliadis
tied the game with 2.9 seconds to go. But Basile, who finished the game
with 7 points on 2-for-8 shooting, made a long and awkward three that
gave his team an important victory. Vladimir Micov scored all of his 13
points in the first half to lead Cantu, Giorgi Shermadini added 11
points and 5 rebounds and Maarten Leunen scored 10 and grabbed 5
rebounds. Read more here.
Zalgiris Kaunas 59 - 94 Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos
locked at least second place in Group B and kept its chances to finish
first by downing Zalgiris 59-94 in Kaunas, Lithuania on Wednesday.
Panathinaikos improved to 6-2 in Group B and visits undefeated leader
CSKA Moscow next week in a high-profile showdown. Zalgiris dropped to
2-6 and faces a critical game against Brose Baskets in Bamberg, Germany
next week. Steven Smith and Nick Calathes paced the winners with 17
points apiece. Mike Batiste added 13 for Panathinaikos. Sonny Weems led
Zalgiris with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Marko Popovic added 14 points
for the hosts. Zalgiris led for the best part of the first quarter but
a layup by Ian Vougioukas gave Panathinaikos a 14-15 lead after 10
minutes. Read more here.
CSKA Moscow 87 - 74 KK Zagreb
CSKA
Moscow remained undefeated through eight games after downing visiting
KK Zagreb 87-74 in the Russian capital on Wednesday, but the game was a
lot closer than the final score would indicate. Zagreb rallied from a
double-digit third quarter deficit to take a brief lead late in that
quarter and CSKA only led 60-58 through 30 minutes after a Ramunas
Siskauskas triple. Zagreb toed it early in the fourth and was still
within 5 within six minutes to play, but Nenad Krstic played his best
down the stretch and helped CSKA pull away for the win. Jamont Gordon
paced the Russian champs with a season-high 18 points, Krstic posted 14
points and 9 rebounds, Sammy Mejia scored 13, Siskauskas 11 and Andrey
Vorontsevich netted 10. Read more here.
Anadolu Efes 84 - 70 EA7 Emporio Armani
Anadolu
Efes recorded its third straight victory on Wednesday night at Sinan
Erdem Arena in Istanbul by beating EA7 Emporio Armani 84-70 to clinch a
Top 16 berth. Efes dominated from start to finish in improving to 5-3
and ensuring a share of second place in Group C at the end of
Thursday’s games. Efes started the game with 8 straight points, added a
13-0 run that bridged the first and second quarters and reeled off 11
more unanswered later in the second quarter in building a 45-27
halftime lead. And Armani never got within single figures the rest of
the way. Sinan Guler led Efes with 14 points, Sasha Vujacic and Cenk
Akyol netted 12 apiece and Esteban Batista scored 10 as part of a
well-balanced team effort. Read more here.
December 2, 2011 - Week 7 bwin co-MVPs: Erazem Lorbek, FC Barcelona Regal and Milan Macvan, Partizan mt:s
For
the first time this season the Euroleague’s weekly MVP honor is shared
by two players. And it couldn’t be more fitting. Two-time
All-Euroleague selection Erazem Lorbek of FC Barcelona Regal and Milan
Macvan of Partizan mt:s are two of the best big man in the game and
both starred in important wins for their respective teams en route to
sharing Week 7 bwin MVP honors. Lorbek needed just 25 minutes to
produce 15 points with just 2 missed shots plus 8 rebounds, 2 assists
and a block in posting a performance index rating of 25 as Barcelona
remained undefeated with a 45-76 road win at Asseco Prokom Gdynia. Read
more here.
December 1, 2011 - Week 7
Partizan mt:s 74 - 71 Maccabi Electra
Partizan
mt:s took a big step towards the Top 16 with a 74-71 win over Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv on Thursday at Pionir Arena in Belgrade. The Serbian
champions used their home-court advantage to snap Maccabi’s five-game
winning streak in Group C. Partizan was led by Milan Macvan, on-loan
from Maccabi, who hit two clutch three pointers in the fourth quarter
on his way to a game-high 22 points and 8 rebounds. Nikola Pekovic
scored 17 for Partizan, which was without injured point guard Acie Law,
but got a huge lift from young forward Vladimir Lucic who finished with
15 points. Maccabi missed its first chance to secure a Top 16 as it
dropped to 5-2 and into a tie with Real Madrid for first place. Read
more here.
Bennet Cantu 71 - 68 Caja Laboral
In a dramatic game of
improbable swings, Bennet Cantu squeaked past Caja Laboral 71-68 at the
Pala Desio in Cantu, Italy, on Thursday night. The victory created a
three-way tie at 4-3 atop Group A between Cantu, Caja Laboral and
Fenerbahce Ulker, while three other teams are right behind at 3-4 – the
tightest race after seven games in the history of the Turkish
Euroleague Regular Season. The visitors looked unbeatable after they
grabbed a 12-21 in the first quarter, but Cantu outscored its opponent
40-15 in the middle two quarters, then built further on that lead to
take a seemingly unbeatable 64-43 lead with five minutes to go. But
Caja Laboral outscored the hosts 7-25 from then on, a rally that ended
in the final seconds with a steal by Andrea Cinciarini. Read more here.
EA7 Emporio Armani 65 - 72 Real Madrid
Real Madrid advanced to
the Top 16 in difficult Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season
Group C by edging EA7 Emporio Armani 65-72 in Milano, Italy on Thursday
night. Madrid improved to 5-2 and mathematically made it to the next
round due to its 2-0 record against Armani and Belgacom Spirou. Milano
dropped to 2-5 and needs to bounce back right away to keep its Top 16
options alive. Sergio Rodriguez paced the winners with 19 points. Rudy
Fernandez added 13 while Nikola Mirotic had 11 and 10 rebounds for
Madrid. Danilo Gallinari led Armani with 13 points. Stefano Mancinelli
added 12, Drew Nicholas had 11 while Ioannis Bourousis got 10 for the
hosts. Fernandez led a 0-9 opening run that allowed Madrid to keep a
15-20 margin after 10 minutes. Read more here.
Asseco Prokom 45 - 76 FC Barcelona Regal
FC
Barcelona Regal kept its perfect record on Thursday night thanks to a
clear 45-76 road win at Asseco Prokom. The guests led by 10 at the
break but a 2-12 run to start the third period broke the game open for
good. Barca stands at the top of Group D with a 7-0 record and already
a berth in the Top 16. On the other hand, Prokom remains the only
winless team in the competition at 0-7 and is out of the race for the
Top 16. Victor Sada led the way for the winners with his best
Euroleague scoring performance ever for 17 points, including 3 of 3
triples, Erazem Lorbek added 15 points and 8 boards and Kosta Perovic
chipped in with 10. Read more here.
Union Olimpija 57 - 63 Montepaschi Siena
Montepaschi
Siena advanced to the Top 16 on Thursday evening thanks to a thrilling
win over hosting Union Olimpija by 57-63. Despite a starting 0-10 for
the guests, Olimpija regrouped and thanks to smothering defense, even
managed to jump ahead. However, a final 2 of 19 from the arc was too
much for the hosts to bear and Montepaschi sealed the win with free
throws. The win allows Montepaschi to improve to 5-2 in Group D and
advances to the Top 16. This win also allows Unics, an earlier winner
over Galatasaray, advance to the Toop 16 as well with a 5-1 record in
its debut season. Union Olimpija is now 1-6 and has little options to
advance now. Read more here.
Unics 72 - 61 Galatasaray Medical Park
Unics
got closer to the Top 16 in its first Turkish Airlines Euroleague
season by downing Galatasaray Medical Park 72-61 in Kazan, Russia on
Thursday. Unics improved to 5-2 in regular season Group D and will seal
its ticket to the next round if Montepaschi Siena beats Union Olimpija
in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in a game later Thursday. Galatasaray dropped
to 3-4, but keeps good chances to stay alive in the competition.
Terrell Lyday paced the winners with 17 points. Henry Domercant added
13 - all in the second half, Lynn Greer had 12 and Vladimir Vereemenko
tallied 11 points and 7 rebounds for Unics. Read more here.
Fenerbahce Ulker 86 - 70 Olympiacos
Fenerbahce Ulker picked up an important and
impressive victory in tightly-wound Group A by downing Olympiacos
Piraeus 86-70 on Thursday night. Cutis Jerrells came off the bench for
17 points and 5 assists and Roko Ukic added 16 points as the Turkish
champs improved to 4-3. The game was tied late in the second quarter
and after FB Ulker moved ahead 42-36 at the break, the Reds closed to
within 2 early in the third quarter. But Gasper Vidmar scored half the
points in an 8-0 run and the hosts never looked back. Olympiacos did
get back within 5 in the fourth quarter, but Jerrells and Ukic took
care of business and lifted Fener forward to the win and a the
potential tiebreaker over Olympiacos, which won their previous meeting
by 7. Read more here.
November 30, 2011
Gescrap BB 97 - 75 SLUC Nancy
Gescrap Bilbao rejoined
the Top 16 race in Group A by downing Sluc Nancy 97-75 at home on
Wednesday. Both teams are now tied in Group A with a 3-4 record, but
Gescrap managed to overcome its 14-point loss in Nancy to get the
tie-break advantage if both teams remain tied at the end of the regular
season. Alex Mumbru led 6 Gescrap players in double digits with 15
points. Janis Blums and Marko Banic each added 12, Raul Lopez and Aaron
Jackson had 11 while Kostas Vasileadis got 10 for Gescrap. Jamal Shuler
had 19 points to lead Nancy while Adrien Moerman added 16. A
three-pointer by Roger Grimau tied the game, 22-22, after 10 minutes
and a fast break layup by Pape-Philippe Amagou brought Nancy within
40-39 at halftime. Read more here.
Panathinaikos 94 - 76 KK Zagreb
After
25 minutes of very even scoreboards, defending champions Panathinaikos
locked down its defense and pulled away to a solid 94-76 victory over
upstart KK Zagreb on Wednesday at OAKA arena in Athens, Greece. The
Greens raised their record to 5-2 and remain alone in second place in
Group D, while Zagreb's two-game win streak was halted, leaving the
visitors to share in a three-way tie for fourth place at 2-5 with Brose
Baskets and Zalgiris Kaunas. After sharing leads all game, Zagreb was
up 55-58 midway through the third quarter, which is when the
Panathinaikos defense went into overdrive. The result was a 24-4 run
over almost 10 minutes that made the victory look easier than it was.
Read more here.
Brose Baskets 78 - 81 CSKA Moscow
CSKA
Moscow continued its unbeaten run through Group B by downing Brose
Baskets Bamberg 78-81 on former MVP Milos Teodosic’s buzzer-beating
three-pointer. It was a thrilling game that saw the lead swing back and
forth throughout the 40 minutes and featured four lead changes in the
last five minutes. After freshly crowned November MVP Nenad Krstic tied
the game at 78-78 with 51 seconds left, Casey Jacobsen missed a triple
for the hosts and despite P.J. Tucker’s offensive rebound, Viktor
Khryapa stole the ball and Teodosic did not hesitate when given a
chance to win the game. Krstic paced CSKA with 20 points, Khryapa
tallied 19 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, Alexey Shved netted 14 and
Teodosic finished with 12 points and 5 assists. Read more here.
Belgacom Spirou 62 - 66 Anadolu Efes
Anadolu
Efes gave its Top 16 chances a serious boost with a 62-66 victory over
Belgacom Spirou at the SpirouDome in Charleroi, Belgium, on Wednesday
night. All-Euroleague forward Dusko Savanovic scored 16 points and
grabbed 10 rebounds as Efes won for the second week in a row and
improved to 4-3 in Group C. The visitors jumped out to an early lead
and never looked back. Efes was up by 17 early in the third quarter.
Demond Mallet scored 12 third-quarter points to keep the hosts’ hopes
alive and Spirou rallied in the final minute, but never came within a
shot of even tying the score. Stanko Barac added 12 points and 3 blocks
for the winners and Sasha Vujacic scored 10. Read more here.
Zalgiris Kaunas 67 - 65 Unicaja
Zalgiris
registered its second win in Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season
Group B by downing Unicaja 67-65 in Kaunas, Lithuania on Wednesday
night. Zalgiris improved to 2-5 and rejoined the Top 16 race in this
group while Unicaja dropped to 3-4 but plays 2 of its 3 remaining games
in front of their fans. Sonny Weems led the winners with 18 points and
11 rebounds, including the go-ahead dunk in the final minute. Marko
Popovic added 11 points while Ty Lawson had 10 for Zalgiris. Gerald
Fitch led Unicaja with 15 points. Kristaps Valters and Joel Freeland
each added 12 while Luka Zoric had 11 for the guests. Read more here.
November 28, 2011 - bwin MVP for November: Nenad Krstic, CSKA Moscow
For
the first time in its eight-year history, the Euroleague Basketball's
award for the best player each month will go to the same team twice in
a row as Nenad Krstic of CSKA Moscow has been chosen bwin MVP for
November. CSKA is one of just two Turkish Airlines Euroleague teams
undefeated through six games, and Krstic has had everything to do with
preserving that perfection in November. The 28-year-old center, playing
his first season for CSKA, got more and more efficient as the month
progressed. CSKA followed a pair of road victories, over KK Zagreb and
Panathinaikos Athens, with a pair of home wins against Unicaja and
Zalgiris Kaunas. Krstic had a key role in all four games, but was
biggest when it counted most. Read more here.
November 25, 2011 - Week 6 bwin MVP: Fernando San Emeterio, Caja Laboral
All-Euroleague
small forward Fernando San Emeterio erupted for one of the best games
of his career Thursday to lead Caja Laboral to a crucial overtime
victory over Fenerbahce Ulker and in the process earned Week 6 bwin MVP
honors. San Emeterio scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed a
season-high 8 rebounds to pace Laboral in the 90-85 win. With the
pressure on and players tired after a grueling 40 minutes of
regulation, San Emeterio rose to the occasion with a three-pointer and
a floater in the lane early in the extra session that helped set the
sides apart. When the final buzzer sounded, San Emeterio had made 5 of
8 two-pointers, 3 of 4 threes and remained perfect from the line for
the season with 6 successful free throws. Read more here.
November 25, 2011 - Navarro becomes Euroleague's all-time leading scorer
F.C.
Barcelona Regal superstar Juan Carlos Navarro on Thursday night became
the all-time leading scorer since the Euroleague was founded in 2000!
Navarro’s left-handed layup off a Chuck Eidson steal at 5:30 of the
third quarter of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague game against Union
Olimpija at Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona gave him the record of 2,716
career points, previously held by recently-retired Marcus Brown. And
with plenty of time left in this game and the season, he will keep
adding to the record every time he takes the court. Navarro, 31, has
played his entire 11-season Euroleague career with his hometown club,
F.C. Barcelona. Read more here.
November 24, 2011 - Week 6
SLUC Nancy 76 - 75 Bennet Cantu
SLUC Nancy outlasted Bennet Cantu
in a game that went down to the wire 76-75. Cantu had the last shot
down 3 points, but came up with just 2 in the last second allowing
Nancy to celebrate a tough win. Pape Philippe Amagou drained 18 points
and Jamal Shuler added 12 for the winners. The victory turned group A
into a feast of possibilities, as Nancy joined three other teams in
second place with 3-3 records, including Cantu, with four games to go.
Nancy managed to pull out the win despite committing 16 turnovers –
double Cantu’s total – and getting only 4 points from star Nicolas
Batum as Amagou came up big and the team outshot the visitors across
the board. Cantu was led by Maarten Leunen’s 18 points and Vladimir
Micov’s 14. Read more here.
Unicaja 76 - 77 Panathinaikos
Reigning
champion Panathinaikos blew a 17-point lead, but came back from a
4-point deficit with 15 seconds left to beat Unicaja Malaga 76-77 in a
crucial road victory in Group B. Reigning Euroleague MVP Dimitris
Diamantidis nailed 2 of his 7 three-pointers in the final 15 seconds to
bring his team back from an apparent defeat with 23 points. Steven
Smith and Romain Sato each scored 13 points as Panathinaikos improved
to 4-2 in the group and avoided losing a third straight game. Luka
Zoric helped Unicaja come back from a big hole with 21 points while
Tremmell Darden scored 13 points and Kristaps Valters added 11 points.
Read more here.
KK Zagreb 86 - 74 Brose Baskets
KK
Zagreb CO continued its run of good form and stayed in contention for a
spot in the Top 16 with 86-74 victory over Brose Basket in Zagreb
Arena. The Ants rode the hot hand of Josh Heytvelt, who scored 5 of his
career-high 7 three-pointers in a span of three minutes in the third
quarter that sparked a 17-4 run, and then scored 7 unanswered points in
the fourth quarter to take his team to a 71-62 lead. Heytvelt finished
with 25 points and 12 rebounds, both career-highs. Team captain
Krunoslav Simon added 16 points and 12 rebounds, Mario Kasun had 15
points and 11 rebounds, Damir Mulaomerovic scored 13, and T.J. Ford -
in his Euroleague debut – dished out 10 assists in only 13 minutes on
the floor. Read more here.
Caja Laboral 90 - 85 Fenerbahce Ulker
In
one of the most intense games so far in this 2011-12 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season, Caja Laboral improved its chances to reach the Top
16 and got in a better situation to win Group A by downing Fenerbahce
Ulker 90-85 in overtime in Vitoria, Spain on Thursday. Laboral improved
to 4-2 and now has a 2-0 record against Fener, that dropped to 3-3.
Fernando San Emeterio paced the winners with 25 points and 8 rebounds.
Milko Bjelica added 16 points, Brad Oleson had 13, Mirza Teletovic got
12 while Pablo Prigioni contributed 11 for Laboral. Bojan Bogdanovic
led Fener with 19 points. Oguz Savas added 14 while Curtis Jerrells and
Thabo Sefolosha each had 13 for the guests. Read more here.
FC Barcelona Regal 72 - 46 Union Olimpija
In
a night that will be remembered in Barcelona for a long time, the hosts
FC Barcelona Regal thrashed Union Olimpija on Thursday night by 72-46.
It was a night for the ages because it was then that star Juan Carlos
Navarro became the new Euroleague all-time top scorer, surpassing
Marcus Brown. With 5:30 to go in the third quarter, Chuck Eidson stole
the ball and fed Navarro for an easy layup that marked his 2716th point
in his Euroleague career since 2000. A record that will probably last
for a long time since Navarro has just extended his contract for two
more years with Barca. The win also allowed Barcelona to advance to the
Top 16 keeping a perfect 6-0 record in Group D, while Olimpija drops to
1-5. Read more here.
Maccabi Electra 85 - 76 EA7 Armani
Maccabi
Electra roared for its fifth straight Group C win behind a brilliant
performance from All-Euroleague center Sofoklis Schortsanitis in an
85-76 victory over EA7 Emporio Armani Milano at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv
on Thursday. Big Sofo scored a career-high 28 points as Maccabi
improved to 5-1 and remained alone atop the group standings.
Schortsanitis dominated the proceedings early as Maccabi took a
double-digit lead in the opening quarter. His 22nd points at the
halftime buzzer made it 52-38 at the break. Armani battled back led by
Danilo Gallinari to get within 3 in the third quarter, but Jordan
Farmar scored 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to steer
Maccabi to the win. Read more here.
GS Medical Park 78 - 76 Asseco Prokom
Galatasaray
Medical Park survived Asseco Prokom in a home game Thursday night that
ended 78-76 after overtime. Prokom was dominating the game, but an 11-1
by the hosts in the last minutes of the last period allowed them to
force overtime and then won in the extra period as Oliver Lafayette
missed the winning three. The win allows Galatasaray to improve to 3-3
while Prokom stays as the only winless team in the competition, 0-6.
Zaza Pachulia led the winners with 19 points and 10 boards, Preston
Shumpert added 13, Jamon Lucas 12 and Darius Songaila 10. For Prokom,
Donatas Motiejunas had 22 points and 10 boards while Przemyslaw
Zamojski added 15. Read more here.
Real Madrid 93 - 89 Belgacom Spirou
Real
Madrid improved to 4-2 in difficult Group C and got closer to seal a
Top 16 spot by downing Belgacom Spirou Basket 93-89 in the Spanish
capital on Thursday. Madrid stayed undefeated at home while Spirou
dropped to 1-5 and has slim chances to get to the next round. Marty
Pocius led the winners with 20 points, including the game-sealing free
throws with 5 secodns left. Jaycee Carroll added 16 while Nikola
Mirotic and Serge Ibaka each had 12 for Madrid. Ibaka added 5 blocks
and helped Madrid to outrebound Spirou by 35-24. Chris Hill led Spirou
with 18 points. Caleb Green added 17, Demond Mallet had 15, Justin
Hamilton got 13 while Toko Shengeila contributed 11 for the guests.
Read more here.
November 23, 2011
Montepaschi Siena 73 - 79 Unics
Unics
Kazan scored a major road win by upsetting Montepaschi Siena 73-79 on
Wednesday night behind monster games from Henry Domercant and Vladimir
Veremeenko. With the win Unics tied Montepaschi for second place in
Group D at 4-2, though the Italian champs hold a tiebreak advantage
should they remain tied at the end of the regular season. Montepaschi
led by 6 late in the third quarter, but Unics dominated the fourth
quarter by surging ahead early and then limiting Siena to 12
fourth-quarter points. Domercant finished with 24 points and Veremeenko
tallied 21 points and 10 rebounds in playing all 40 minutes for the
winners. Read more here.
Anadolu Efes 67 - 58 Partizan mt:s
Anadolu Efes improved its chances to clinch a Top 16 spot in difficult regular season Group C by downing Partizan mt:s 67-58
at Sinan Erden Arena in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday. Both teams are
now tied a 3-3 but Efes has a 2-0 record against Efes, in what would be
a decisive factor if both teams remain tied at the end of the regular
season. Sasha Vujacic paced the winners with 19 points. Dusko Savanovic
added 16 while Stanko Barac had 10 for Efes. Milan Macvan led Partizan
15 points. Danilo Andjusic and Acie Law each added 10 for the guests.
Efes opened the game with an 9-2 run but an outstanding Macvan and a
big basket by Law allowed Partizan to get a 15-17 lead after 10
minutes. Read more here.
Olympiacos 88 - 81 Gescrap BB
Vassilis
Spanoulis scored 18 of his Euroleague career-high 29 points to lead
Olympiacos to a crucial 88-81 victory over Gescrap BB on Wednesday at
the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus, Greece. Spanoulis scored
the go-ahead basket, assisted on the bucket that put the Reds up 9 and
helped seal the win with 4 free throws in the final minute as
Olympiacos survived to improve to 3-3 in tightly wound Group A. The
loss dropped Gescrap to 2-4. Olympiacos jumped ahead to a 19-9 start,
but Bilbao came back to within 45-42 by halftime and led for much of
the third quarter. Alas Spanoulis turned up at his best in the fourth
quarter to steer Olympiacos to victory. Read more here.
CSKA Moscow 95 - 82 Zalgiris Kaunas
CSKA
became the first team to seal a ticket to the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague Top 16 by downing Zalgiris 95-82 in Moscow, Russia in Group
B on Wednesday. CSKA stayed undefeated and improved to 6-0 to keep
first place. Zalgiris dropped to 1-5 and needs to start winning right
away in order to keep its Top 16 options alive. Nenad Krstic paced the
winners with 21 points. Alexey Shved added 16, Andrey Vorontsevich and
Milos Teodosic each had 14 while Nikita Kurbanov got 10 for CSKA. Sonny
Weems led Zalgiris with 22 points. Marko Popovic and Tomas
Delininkaitis each added 12 while Milovan Rakovic had 10 for the
guests. Krstic helped CSKA to get an early 12-8 lead but Weems and
Rakovic made Zalgiris regain the lead, 24-25, after 10 minutes. Read
more here.
November 18, 2011 - Week 5 bwin MVP: Andrei Kirilenko, CSKA Moscow
With
a brilliant team-oriented performance that set a new standard for
efficiency, CSKA Moscow forward Andrei Kirilenko made sure to keep his
team undefeated while garnering Week 5 bwin MVP honors. Though
Kirilenko, who was also the opening week MVP as well as the winner of
the October MVP title, only recorded 3 shot attempts during his 35
minutes on the floor of CSKA’s 77-66 victory, he managed to score,
rebound and play defense to the fullest. Kirilenko finished the night
with 17 points on near perfect shooting – 1 of 2 two-pointers, 1 for 1
from behind the arc and 12 of 13 on free throws – plus 9 rebounds, 2
assists, 6 steals, 3 blocked shots and 7 fouls drawn to amass the
highest performance index rating in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague yet
this season: 39. Read more here.
November 17, 2011 - Week 5
EA7 Emporio Armani 65 - 69 Partizan mt:s
Partizan
mt:s overcame a 21-point third-quarter deficit and stunned EA7 Emporio
Armani Milano 65-69 in Mediolanum Forum in Milano for an important
victory. It was Partizan’s third straight in Group C of the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague and carried the Serbian champs into a tie for
second place in the group at 3-2. The home side wasted a great
defensive effort in the first half when they allowed only 19 points and
left Partizan scoreless for the final seven minutes of the second
quarter. Milano finished the first half with 15 unanswered points to
build a double-digit lead, but Partizan finished the game in a
remarkable fashion. Head coach Vlade Jovanovic’s resilient team was
down by 15 point with six minutes to go but then used a huge 1-20 run
to turn the game around and record their first away victory of the
season. Read more here.
Real Madrid 104 - 84 Anadolu Efes
Real Madrid dominated
Anadolu Efes 104-84 at home to hang onto a tie for second place in
Group C. The win stopped a two-game slide for the Whites and improved
their record to 3-2. Jaycee Carroll paved the way with 19 points,
including 5 of 8 from beyond the arc., while Sergio Rodriguez racked up
a game-leading 10 assists. Madrid outshot Efes in all categories,
especially free throws, hitting 73% compared to 53% from the foul line.
Efes cut a deficit of 21 points early in the fourth quarter to just 7
with under five minutes to go, but Rudy Fernandez scored 8 of his 14 in
the final few minutes to help Madrid close out the game comfortably.
Nikola Mirotic added 17 points and Carlos Suarez had 15 for the
winners. Read more here.
Brose Baskets 79 - 76 Panathinaikos
Brose
Baskets pulled off a shock in Group B of the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague by defending its home court with a 79-76 victory over
Panathinaikos. Predrag Suput led the way with 19 points while Julius
Jenkins had 13 points and Casey Jacobsen chipped in 10 in improving
Brose’s record to 2-3. Panathinaikos dropped to 3-2 despite 16 points
from Dimitris Diamantidis and 13 from Kostas Kaimakoglou. Nick Calathes
and Romain Sato both chipped in with 11 points. Neither team could
score in their first couple of possessions in the first two minutes
until Brian Roberts’ layup after a steal to put Bamberg ahead 2-0.
Diamantidis answered at the other end to make it 2-2. PJ Tucker was
very aggressive in the early going and drove hard to the basket for a
layup and Jacobsen’s triple from the left corner gave Brose a 7-2
advantage. Read more here.
Maccabi Electra 69 - 59 Belgacom Spirou
Despite
controlling the game in the first quarter, it was a much fought home
win for Maccabi Electra on Thursday night as it defeated Belgacom
Spirou by 69-59. The hosts led 22-11 after 10 minutes, but Demond
Mallet led the guests into a solid comeback that had them ahead by
50-54 after 30 minutes. However, a starting 10-0 to the last quarter
was good enough for Maccabi to pull the final win. With the win,
Maccabi improves to 4-1 to keep leading Group C while Spirou drops to
1-4 and will finish the first leg of the regular season in last place.
Read more here.
Montepaschi Siena 84 - 73 Asseco Prokom
Montepaschi
improved to 4-1 in Group D and took another step forwards to advance to
the Top 16 by downing Asseco Prokom Gdynia 84-73 in Siena, Italy on
Thursday. Rimantas Kaukenas led the winners with 15 points - all in the
second half. Bo McCalebb added 14, David Moss had 11 while David
Andersen got 10 for Montepaschi. Donatas Motiejunas led Prokom with 26
points and 9 rebounds. Oliver Lafayette added 19 points while
Przemyslaw Zamojski had 11 - all in the fourth quarter - for Prokom,
that dropped to 0-5. Ksistof Lavrinovic and McCalebb allowed
Montepaschi to get a 16-15 edge after 10 minutes. Read more here.
GS Medical Park 66 - 70 FC Barcelona Regal
FC
Barcelona Regal remained unbeaten after surviving a fourth -quarter
comeback from Galatasaray Medical Park to record a 66-70 road win on
Thursday night. Barca reached the midway point of the regular season
with a perfect record in Group D thanks to a 14-point effort from
Erazem Lorbek. Former MVP Juan Carlos Navarro added 12 in his quest to
become the all-time leading scorer in the competition. He now needs 14
points to achieve that distinction. The visitors dominated in the
second quarter to lead 29-44 at halftime and increased the advantage to
20 in the third quarter. But Galatasaray roared in the fourth quarter
as Barca missed shot after shot and eventually the hosts clawed their
way back within 2 with 10 seconds left. Read more here.
Unics 81 - 51 Union Olimpija
Thanks
to a roaring comeback after the halftime break, Unics made sure Union
Olimpija didn't survive in Kazan on Thursday night and took its first
home win of the season by 81-51. With a 39-34 after 20 minutes, the
hosts stormed with a rain of threes that broke the game open and soon
earned a 20-point lead for Unics, who never looked back. The third
period ended with a 22-5 for Unics. The win allows the Kazan team to
improve to 3-2 in Group D to finish the first leg of the regular
season, while Union Olimpija dropped to 1-4. Terrell Lyday led all
scorers with 22 points, his highest of the season, including 7 of 8
two-point shots. Mike Wilkinson joined him with 21 points behind 4 of 5
threes and 13 points in the third quarter. Read more here.
November 16, 2011
Olympiacos 91 - 78 SLUC Nancy
Olympiacos
survived a critical test in Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season
Group A by downing Sluc Nancy 91-78 in the Pireaus, Greece on
Wednesday. Olympiacos and Nancy join Gescrap Bizkaia in a three-way tie
for fourth place in Group A, all at 2-3 and just one win away from the
leaders - Caja Laboral, Fenerbahce Ulker and Bennet Cantu. Vassilis
Spanoulis paced the winners with 26 points and 6 assists. Michalis
Pelekanos added 11 points while Andreas Glyniadakis had 10 for
Olympiacos. Pelekanos lived up to his defensive reputation by limiting
Nancy superstar Nicolas Batum to just 9 points. Adrien Moerman led
Nancy with 20 points, John Linehan added 17 and Jamal Shuler 15. Read
more here.
KK Zagreb 80 - 78 Zalgiris Kaunas
KK
Zagreb recorded its first ever Euroleague victory on Wednesday by
outlasting Zalgiris Kaunas 80-78 in a thriller in the Croatian capital.
Krunoslav Simon scored 22 points and Josh Heytvelt added 17 points and
11 rebounds to pace the winners. Zagreb dominated early and led by 15
in the second quarter, but Zalgiris came all the way back to set up a
very exciting fourth quarter, which featured 11 lead changes and four
ties. Paulius Jankunas tied the game at 78-78 with 27 seconds to go.
Zagreb kept the visitors in the game by making 2 of 4 free throws the
rest of the way, but Zalgiris committed a costly turnover and Mantas
Kalnietis missed at the buzzer, which allowed Zagreb to celebrate. Read
more here.
Caja Laboral 84 - 89 Gescrap BB
A
local derby played for the first time on the international stage saw
Gescrap BB rally for a huge 84-89 victory over archrival Caja Laboral
before a shocked home crowd in Vitoria, Spain on Wednesday. Gescrap
raised its Group A record to 2-3 and will be tied for fourth place.
Caja Laboral lost its second straight and will share a mutliple tie for
first place at 3-2. Except for a pair of third-quarter possessions,
Gescrap had led the whole game until Caja Laboral surged ahead 81-76
with 3 minutes left. That's when Gescrap reacted with a 0-11 run
ingited by Alex Mumbru from downtown. Kostas Vasiliadis sealed the
victory at the foul line, sending Gescrap just 60 kilometers up the
road to Bilbao with something to celebrate. Read more here.
Fenerbahce Ulker 85 - 83 Bennet Cantu
In
an exciting battle that went down to the wire, Fenerbahce Ulker grabbed
its third consecutive win in Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season
Group A by edging Bennet Cantu 85-83 in overtime in Istanbul, Turkey on
Wednesday. Both teams are tied at 3-2 in the upper standing of this
group's standings. Omer Onan led the winners with 18 points. Thabo
Sefolosha added 14, Oguz Savas had 13, Bojan Bogdanovic and Roko Ukic
each got 12 while Gasper Vidmar contributed 10 for Fenerbahce. Gianluca
Basile and Nicolas Mazzarino led Cantu with 12 points apiece. Maarten
Leunen and Denis Marconato had 11 apiece for the guests. Read more here.
CSKA Moscow 77 - 66 Unicaja
CSKA
became the first team to 5 wins in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague this
season by downing visiting Unicaja 77-66 on Wednesday evening in Group
B. Former Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic scored 6 in an 8-0 charge late
in the second quarter that helped the hosts lead 34-29 at halftime.
Teodosic, Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved provided third-quarter
highlights as the Russian champs ran away with the game by taking the
lead past 20 points. Unicaja did mount a serious fourth quarter charge
through Berni Rodriguez and Tremmell Darden and eventually closed to
within 6 with a minute to play, but a Teodosic triple slammed the door
on that comeback and ensured the CSKA victory. Read more here.
November 11, 2011 - Week 4 bwin MVP: Nicolas Batum, SLUC Nancy
SLUC
Nancy forward Nicolas Batum was at his best against on Thursday with a
brilliant all-around performance to lead the French champs to a 90-85
win over previously unbeaten Caja Laboral. The victory made Nancy 2-0
at home this season and just like in their previous win in front of
French fans, Batum was the star of the show and subsequently earned
Week 4 bwin MVP honors. Batum amassed an impressive stat line of 21
points with just 3 missed shots in addition to 9 rebounds, 4 assists
and a block en route to a performance index rating of 35. Beyond the
numbers, Batum was also crucial to the Nancy effort in that he played
all 40 minutes – his average 39:26 minutes per game is most in the
league – and was clutch down the stretch with and 7 points in the
game's last 5 minutes. Read more here.
November 10, 2011 - Week 4
Belgacom Spirou 76 - 81 EA7 Emporio Armani
After
a neck-and-neck battle throughout the game, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
pulled out a thrilling 76-81 win in the final minute against Belgacom
Spirou. The game featured numerous lead changes, but Milano prevailed
in the end, thanks to steady play from Antonis Fotsis, who led the team
with 19 points, and Danilo Gallinari, who added 17. Both players also
hit timely foul shots with the game on the line. Ioannis Bourousis was
also a factor for the visitors, establishing an effective low-post
game, especially in the final quarter. Spirou was led by Demond
Mallet’s 21 points, while Andre Riddick added 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Both Group C teams needed the win to stay in the upper half of the
standings, but it was Milan that lifted its record to 2-2, while Spirou
slipped to 1-3. Read more here.
Partizan mt:s 80 - 79 Real Madrid
Partizan
m:ts recorded another huge victory in front of its loyal fans at Pionir
Arena by downing Real Madrid 80-79 in a dramatic fashion. Partizan
survived despite only 2-of-14 three-point shooting and beat Real Madrid
for only the second time in club history. Both teams now have 2-2
records in Group C. Acie Law made what turned out to be 2 crucial free
throws with 17.3 seconds to go while Sergio Llull in the remaining time
missed one of two free throws as well as the potentially game-wining
triple at the buzzer. Nikola Pekovic was hosts’ top scorer with 21
points, and Milan Macvan scored 16 along with 12 rebounds. Read more here.
SLUC Nancy 90 - 85 Caja Laboral
SLUC
Nancy picked up its second victory of the season and handed Caja
Laboral its first loss with a 90-85 decision in a thrilling
back-and-forth Group A encounter. Akin Akingbala scored 26 points to
lead Nancy in scoring while Nicolas Batum collected 21 points, 9
rebounds and 4 assists as Nancy improved to 2-2. Pape Philippe Amagou
added 16 points and Adrien Moerman chipped in 13 points for the
winners. Caja Laboral, who were facing Nancy for the first time since
1997, dropped to 3-1 despite 24 points from Mirza Teletovic, 19 points
by Fernando San Emeterio and 12 from Kevin Seraphin. Read more here.
Panathinaikos 76 - 78 CSKA Moscow
CSKA
Moscow survived an overtime thriller to remain undefeated by beating
Panathinaikos 76-78 in the latest classic showdown between the
Euroleague powerhouses. CSKA took sole possession of first place in
Group B with the come-from-behind win. It was an all-around effort for
the Russian champs, who got the job done at both ends of the intense
contest. Former Euroleague MVP Ramunas Siskauskas scored 14 to lead
CSKA against his former team. Nenad Krstic posted 13 points and 11
rebounds, Viktor Khryapa posted 11 points, 4 assists and 3 blocks,
Alexey Shved netted 10 and Andrei Kirilenko tallied 9 points, 11
rebounds and 5 rejections. Read more here.
FC Barcelona Regal 92 - 75 Montepaschi
The
duel of Group D undefeated teams on Thursday night fell in favor of
hosting FC Barcelona Regal, who defeated Montepaschi Siena by 92-75. An
early run for 19-4 allowed the hosts to face the game calmly, while
Siena had to make up for big deficits from early on, and it never had a
chance to succeed. The win lifts Barcelona's record to a perfect 4-0 to
lead the group while Siena drops to 1-3. Chuck Eidson had his best
night since his arrival to Barcelona to lead his team with 22 points.
Erazem Lorbek, going through a sweet moment, helped with 17, and Boni
Ndong had 15. For Siena, Bo McCalebb led the way with 20 points,
Ksistof Lavrinovic had 13, David Andersen 12, Igor Rakocevic 11 and
Rimas Kaukenas 10.
Anadolu Efes 72 - 79 Maccabi Electra
Maccabi
Electra took the battle atop the Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular
season Group C standings by edging Anadolu Efes 72-79 in Istanbul,
Turkey on Thursday night. Maccabi became the first team to win a
Euroleague game in Sinan Erdem Arena - home of the 2012 Final Four -
this season and improved to 3-1 in Group C. Efes dropped to 2-2 and
registered its second home loss in this group. Jordan Farmar paced the
winners with 18 points. David Blu added 15 while Sofoklis Schortsanitis
and Lior Eliyahu each had 12 for Maccabi. Sasha Vujacic led Efes with
21 points while Stanko Barac added 17. A 0-6 run that Shawn James
capped with a dunk allowed Maccabi to get a 13-14 lead after 10
minutes. Read more here.
Zalgiris Kaunas 81 - 70 Brose Baskets
In
a back and forth game at the Zalgirio Arena on Thursday, Zalgiris
Kaunas managed to pull its first win of the season thanks to a 81-70
thrilling win over Brose Baskets. The guests dominated the first
minutes but a stellar Sonny Weems put the hosts back in the game and
then ahead for good. However, Brose Baskets never surrendered and even
had the chance to tie the game again with 5 minutes left, but after
that, Zalgiris recovered and never looked back again to the delight of
its fans on the stands. Zalgiris therefore improves to 1-3 in Group B
while Brose drops to also 1-3. Weems was a beast in offense as he led
all scorers with 22 points, Marko Popovic added 13 for Zalgiris and
Milovan Rakovic had 12 points and 6 rebounds. Read more here.
November 9, 2011
Asseco Prokom 68 - 72 Unics
Unics
came from behind in the fourth quarter of an intense seesaw battle
against Asseco Prokom to pull out its second road win of the season
68-72. Henry Domercant came up big again with 15 fourth-quarter points,
including a clutch three-pointer with 36 seconds on the clock to lead
the winners. Unics improved its record to 2-2 in its first Turkish
Airlines Euroleague season. Prokom, despite leading by 5 midway through
the fourth quarter, fell to 0-4. Domercant led all scorers with 23
points. Kelly McCarty added 13 and Aleksey Savrasenko had 10 for Kazan.
Donatas Motiejunas paced Prokom with 19 points, while Michael Kuebler
knocked down 15 and Oliver Lafayette 14. Read more here.
Bennet Cantu 64 - 63 Olympiacos
Another
party atmosphere in Desio, Italy ended in joy for the home fans again
as Bennet Cantu outlasted visiting Olympiacos 64-63 on a free throw
with 7.8 seconds left by Giorgi Shermadini. Cantu, in its return to the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague after a 17-year absence, raised its record
to 3-1, with all victories at home. With one game left to play in the
group, Nancy vs. Caja Laboral on Thursday, Cantu will either be alone
in second place or tied with both for the group lead at the end of the
week. Olympiacos, meanwhile, has dropped to 1-3, with its last two
defeats on the road by a combined 3 points, and shares a fifth-place
tie with Bizkaia Bilbao Basket. Read more here.
Bizkaia Bilbao 70 - 73 Fenerbahce Ulker
Fenerbahce
Ulker grabbed its second consecutive win in Turkish Airlines Euroleague
regular season Group A by edging Bizkaia Bilbao Basket 70-73 on the
road on Wednesday. Fenerbahce moved up to 2-2 in Group A and improved
its chances to go to the Top 16. Bilbao went down to 1-3, registered
its third consecutive loss and needs to bounce back right away,
starting with its game against regional rivals Caja Laboral next week.
Bojan Bogdanovic led the winners with 19 points in just 22 minutes.
Curtis Jerrells added 15 while James Gist had 10 for Fenerbahce. Marko
Banic had 17 points for Bilbao while Kostas Vasileadis added 15.
Bogdanovic had 9 points late in the first quarter to give Fenerbahce a
21-26 lead after 10 minutes. Bilbao improved its defense and Banic
allowed his team to get a 36-32 margin at the break. Read more here.
Unicaja 99 - 85 KK Zagreb
Unicaja
will move into a tie for second place in Group B after a 99-85 win over
KK Zagreb CO on Wednesday at Martin Carpena Arena in Malaga, Spain.
Unicaja improved to 3-1 and will join the loser of Thursday’s
Panathinaikos vs. CSKA duel in second place, one win behind the winner
and group leader. The visitors got off to a 0-9 start and led
throughout the first quarter, but Jorge Garbajosa and EJ Rowland keyed
a 16-0 blitz as the hosts took control midway through the second
quarter, led 49-41 at the half and never looked back. The lead reached
21 in the fourth quarter as Unicaja cruised to the win. Luka Zoric
paced six Unicaja scorers in double figures with 14 against his former
team, Joel Freeland added 13, Garbajosa and Rowland scored 12 each,
Berni Rodriguez 11 and Saul Blanco 10. Read more here.
Union Olimpija 70 - 79 Galatasaray Medical Park
Galatasaray
Medical Park took a critical step forwards towards reaching the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Top 16 in Group D by beating Union Olimpija 70-79
in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Wednesday night. Galatasaray moved up to 2-2
and will at least tie for third place at the end of this round.
Olimpija dropped to 1-3 and plays 4 of its next 5 games on the road. In
his first-ever Euroleague start at age 20, Furkan Aldemir paced the
winners with 18 points on 7-of-9 two-pointers and 11 rebounds. Josh
Shipp added 17 points, Preston Shumpert got 11 while Darius Songaila
had 10 for Galatasaray. Aleksandar Capin led Olimpija with 15 points.
Ratko Varda added 14 while Deon Thompson had 11 for the hosts. Read
more here.
November 5, 2011 - Week 3 bwin MVP: Jordan Farmar, Maccabi Electra
Jordan
Farmar delivered his finest performance to date since joining Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv over the summer to lead the Israeli champs to an 88-82
victory over Real Madrid and earn Week 3 bwin MVP honors. Farmar, a
Euroleague rookie, had big shoes to fill this season when he took the
spot in the starting lineup of All-Euroleague point guard Jeremy Pargo,
who led the Israeli champs to the Euroleague title game last season.
But in a highly-anticipated showdown against the team Macccabi bested
in the semifinals at last season’s Final Four in Barcelona, Farmar came
through using his speed, shot making ability and ball handling skills
to post big numbers. Read more here.
November 4, 2011 - Week 3
Panathinaikos 92 - 75 Zalgiris Kaunas
Panathinaikos
remained undefeated in Group B with a strong second half to beat
Zalgiris Kaunas 92-75 at OAKA on Friday night in the last game of Week
3. Reigning Euroleague MVP Dimitris Diamantidis scored 16 points to
pace the winners. The visitors, who played their first game under new
head coach Aleksandar Trifunovic, played well early and led 38-42 at
halftime. But Diamantidis opened the second half with a pair of
three-pointers and later Kostas Kaimakoglou nailed a triple to make it
64-55 at the end of the third quarter. Steven Smith starred in a 10-0
fourth-quarter run that wrapped up the game. Read more here.
November 4, 2011 - Euroleague Basketball Announce 2012 Nike International Junior Classification Tournaments
The
Euroleague Basketball Nike International Junior Tournament, which
crowns the best youth team of the continent each spring, will mark its
10th anniversary at the 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in
Istanbul, Turkey on the second weekend in May. Euroleague Basketball is
proud to announce that four preliminary classification tournaments will
be held across Europe during the winter – in Rome, L'Hospitalet,
Belgrade and, for the first time ever, Kaunas, Lithuania – to determine
qualifiers for the finals in Istanbul. The winners in each of those
cities will reserve the right to play on the biggest stage of all, in
parallel with the 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. The
winning team in Istanbul will become the undisputed European Junior
Club Champion and will represent Europe in the 2012 Nike Global
Challenge. Read more here.
November 4, 2011 - SLUC Nancy's Linehan sets Euroleague assist mark
SLUC Nancy playmaker John Linehan set a new
Euroleague record with 15 assists on Thursday night in Istanbul. The
previous record of 14 assists in a game came twice. Linehan broke the
record with a pass to Nicolas Batum for a three-pointer with 11 seconds
remaining. Despite his performance, host Fenerbahce Ulker won the game
90-86. Linehan, 33, is a Turkish Airlines Euroleague rookie
accomplishing this feat in just his third Euroleague game. He totaled 7
assists in his first two appearances. Read more here.
November 3, 2011
Partizan mt:s 91 - 81 Belgacom Spirou
Partizan
mt:s downed Belgian champion Belgacom Spirou Charleroi 91-81 in front
of a loud and faithful home crowd at Pionir Arena for its first victory
in this Turkish Airlines Euroleague season. Partizan led for the great
majority of this fast-paced Group C encounter, but could not break the
game open until the final three minutes of the fourth quarter when Acie
Law scored crucial points to secure the home team’s win. Law ended up
being the top scorer in the game with 26 points and he dished out 7
assist as well. Nikola Pekovic scored 21 on 9-of-13 shooting, while
Milan Macvan had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Dragan
Milosavljevic also finished the game in double figures with 14 points.
Read more here.
Bennet Cantu 78 - 69 Bizkaia Bilbao Basket
Bennet
Cantu outdueled Bizkaia Bilbao Basket 78-69 to secure sole possession
of second place in Group A. Giorgi Shermadini was the hero with 16
points on 7-of-8 shooting and 6 rebounds for the winners. Cantu won its
second straight home game and now boasts a 2-1 record. Maarten Leunen
added 14 points, Manuchar Markoishvili scored 12 and Andrea Cinciarini
produced 12 points and 6 assists for head coach Andrea Trinchieri.
Cantu led 42-31 at the half, but Bilbao battled back and cut the lead
to 5 in the fourth. Cantu, however, always answered by finding an open
shot through its good ball movement. The hosts also won the battle of
the offensive boards, 9-4. Read more here.
EA7 Emporio Armani 54 - 62 Anadolu Efes
Anadolu Efes led from
start to finish as it clinched a very important road win on Thursday by
beating EA7 Emporio Armani Milano 54-62. Stako Barac scored 16 and
Tarence Kinsey posted 13 for Efes, which improved to 2-1 and moved into
a three-way tie for first place in Group C. Efes started strong and led
by 15 early in the second quarter and 21-33 at halftime. Omar Cook and
Danilo Gallinari rallied Armani within 2, but Kinsey and Sasha Vujacic
shut the door on that comeback. The hosts rallied again in the fourth
only to see Barac and Vujacic take charge and carry Efes to victory.
Vujacic added 12 for the winners. Gallinari scored 12 for Milano, but
was ejected late in the fourth quarter. Bourousis added 11 plus 10
rebounds for the hosts, who suffered from a miserable three-point
shooting night (2 for 18). Read more here.
Brose Baskets 78 - 79 Unicaja
The
beautiful city of Bamberg, Germany was witness to a complete Turkish
Airlines Euroleague thriller as Unicaja managed to pull the road win
over Brose Baskets by 78-79. Despite some double-digit leads, the game
was close throughout and the final minutes were heartstopping to say
the least. With 78-77 and 13 seconds to go after a Brian Roberts three,
Kristaps Valters missed his shot but a providential offensive rebound
and jumper by Berni Rodriguez put Unicaja ahead by one point again,
78-79. In the next play, Roberts looked for the basket again but the
ball didn't go in and Unicaja managed to escepe from Freak City with
the win. Now, Unicaja improves its Group B record to 2-1 while Brose
drops to 1-2. Read more here.
Maccabi Electra 88 - 82 Real Madrid
Maccabi
Electra sent a message that echoed all around the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague by downing previously undefeated Real Madrid 88-82 in front
of a sellout crowd at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv, Israel in Group C on
Wednesday night. Maccabi and Madrid join Anadolu Efes in a three-way
tie atop this group's standings, each with a 2-1 record. Jordan Farmar
led the winners with 27 points on 9-of-11 two-pointers. David Blu and
Sofoklis Schortsanitis each added 16 while Devin Smith had 15 for
Maccabi. Jaycee Carroll led Madrid with 18 points. Felipe Reyes added
15 while Rudy Fernandez had 13 for the guests. Richard Hendrix and
Farmar allowed Maccabi to get a 19-13 margin late in the first quarter.
Read more here.
Fenerbahce Ulker 90 - 86 SLUC Nancy
A
convenient 11-0 run at the start of the second period was all that
Fenerbahce Ulker needed to take its first win of the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season at home against SLUC Nancy, 90-86. The guests started
well in the game, but Fenerbahce managed to shut Nico Batum down and
got Thabo Sefolosha and Bojan Bogdanovic on fire. However, in the
second half Nancy regrouped and by the last minutes of the last quarter
it even had solid chances to cmplete a 23-point comeback, but in the
end a free throw by Omer Onan sealed the deal. Now, Fener is 1-2 in
Group A, while Nancy also drops to 1-2 to tie with the Turksih team.
Sefolosha led the winners with 19 points, Onan, James Gist and Oguz
Savas posted 13 apiece Bogdanovic had 11 and Kaya Peker nailed 10. Read
more here.
Unics 65 - 93 FC Barcelona Regal
FC
Barcelona Regal stayed undefeated in difficult Group D by thrashing
reigning Eurocup champion Unics 65-93 in Kazan, Russia on Thursday. FCB
Regal ties with Montepaschi Siena atop this group's standings, each
with a 3-0 record. Unics dropped to 1-2 and registered its second
consecutive loss. Erazem Lorbek paced the winners with 24 points on
9-of-11 two-pointers and 2-of-2 triples. Juan Carlos Navarro added 19,
Pete Mickeal had 16 while Marcelinho Huertas got 10 and 8 assists for
Barcelona. Terrell Lyday led Unics with 14 points. Vladimir Veremeenko
added 11 while Kelly McCarty had 10 for the hosts. Lorbek downed
back-to-back three-pointers in a 0-11 run that allowed his team to get
a 9-19 lead late in the first quarter. Read more here.
November 3, 2011 - NBA TV brings more Euroleague broadcasts to North America
Longtime Euroleague Basketball broadcasting partner
NBA TV will continue bringing Europe’s premier basketball to North
America thanks to a new agreement for the current season. The new deal
means that NBA TV will broadcast one game per week to North American
viewers, with a choice between the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Game of
the Week or exclusive North American rights to a different game. Read
more here.
November 2, 2011
Union Olimpija 70 - 62 Asseco Prokom
Union
Olimpija Ljubljana used some overdue outside shooting to beat visiting
Asseco Prokom Gdynia of Poland 70-62 at home in Stozice Arena on
Wednesday. It was Olimpija's first victory in Group D, good for a 1-2
record, while Prokom dropped to 0-3 and needs a win soon to keep up its
Top 16 hopes. Olimpija, which made just 4 of 33 three-point tries in
its first two games, saw five different players make 11 of 27 to keep
ahead of Prokom all night. Danny Green was the big gun for Olimpija,
with 23 points that included 5-for-7 shooting from downtown. No more
Olimpija scorers reached double digits, but Robert Rothbart came off
the bench for 9 and 8 rebounds, while Dino Muric and Aleksandar Capin
scored 8 each. Read more here.
KK Zagreb 47 - 89 CSKA Moscow
CSKA
Moscow stayed undefeated in regular season Group B by simply
overwhelming KK Zagreb Croatia Osiguranje 47-89 in Croatia on
Wednesday. CSKA improved to 3-0 and got close to sealing an early Top
16 spot, while Zagreb dropped to 0-3. Nenad Krstic led the winners with
15 points. Andrei Kirilenko added 14, Andrey Vorontsevich had 12 and
Sammy Mejia 10 for CSKA. Krunoslav Simon scored 15 points for Zagreb,
which was without big man Sean May. Mario Kasun added 14 for the hosts.
In two of the biggest keys to this game, CSKA downed 11 of 20
three-pointers (55%) and committed just 8 turnovers. Kirilenko led CSKA
to a 13-22 margin after 10 minutes. Read more here.
Montepaschi Siena 103 - 77 Galatasaray Medical Park
Montepaschi
Siena led from start to finish as it whipped Galatasaray Medical Park
103-77 on Wednesday to take its Group D record to 3-0. Rimantas
Kaukenas completed a near-perfect shooting night with 24 points and
BoMcCalebb added 19 and 4 assists to lead Montepaschi, which made 10 of
18 three-pointers (55.6%). The hosts raced out to a 14-3 start.
Galatasaray came back and got within 7 in the second half before
Kaukenas, Pietro Aradori and McCalebb put the Italian champs up 50-37
at the half. And any hope of a Galatasaray comeback was dashed by David
Moss, who drilled back-to-back triples early in the second half to take
the lead into the 20+ point range. Read more here.
Caja Laboral 81 - 79 Olympiacos
In
arguably one of the best Turkish Airlines Euroleague games so far this
season, Caja Laboral stayed undefeated in Group A by edging Olympiacos
81-79 in Vitoria, Spain on Wednesday night. Pablo Prigioni won the game
for Laboral with the go-ahead jumper with just 1.7 seconds to go.
Laboral went up to 3-0 in Group A while Olympiacos dropped to 1-2.
Mirza Teletovic paced the winners with 20 points. Kevin Seraphin and
Fernando San Emeterio each added 15 for Laboral, but Prigioni stole the
show and set the crowd on fire with his game-winning shot. Vassilis
Spanoulis led Olympiacos with 19 points. Pero Antic and Kyle Hines each
added 14 while Marko Keselj had 10 for the Reds. Read more here.
October 31, 2011 - bwin MVP for October: Andrei Kirilenko, CSKA Moscow
On
the heels of a disappointing 2010-11 Turkish Airlines Euroleague
season, it took CSKA Moscow just two games to prove to everyone that
the team is back on track to fight for its seventh continental title
already this season. After two regular season games, CSKA leads the
competition in assists, is second in scoring and performance index
rating and has registered two clear wins over Zalgiris and Brose
Baskets. One man who has everything to do with CSKA's early-season
resurgence is power forward Andrei Kirilenko, who is Euroleague
Basketball's choice as bwin MVP for October. Kirilenko returned to CSKA
this season after a decade abroad and has made sure nobody has
forgotten about his talent or intensity. Read more here.
October 28, 2011 - Week 2 bwin MVP: Nicolas Batum, SLUC Nancy
With
one spectacular play after another, supertalent Nicolas Batum made the
first home game of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague season one to
remember for the home fans in Nancy as the hosts pulled away to their
first victory, 87-73 over Bizkaia Bilbao Basket on Thursday. Batum not
only played nearly the entire game and flirted with a triple-double,
but took over with 11 points in a 15-0 run in the final three minutes.
The final boxscore showed the mercurial small forward to have a
Euroleague career high 26 points – including making 11 of 12 free
throws – plus 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 11 fouls drawn. That
impressive performance left Batum with a performance index rating of
36, which was the most of any player in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague
this week and earned Batum the bwin MVP honor for Week 2 of the regular
season. Read more here.
October 27, 2011 - Week 2
Maccabi Electra 70 - 66 Partizan mt:s
Maccabi Electra Tel
Aviv recorded its first win in Group C by beating Partizan mt:s 70-66
at a packed Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Maccabi was led by the point guard
duo of Theo Papaloukas and Jordan Farmar as they trailed only once in
entire game and had 19-point lead before Partizan closed out the game
with 5-16 run. Papaloukas finished with 13 points and Farmar had 11
along with 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Lior Eliyahu and Guy Pnini also
ended up 10 points each. Dragan Milosavljevic and former Maccabi player
Milan Macvan scored 14 each in losing effort. Macvan also grabbed 5
rebounds. Acie Law finished with 12 points, and Nikola Pekovic had 11
with 8 rebounds for the Serbian champs, who dropped to 0-2. Read more here.
FC Barcelona Regal 88 - 61 Asseco Prokom
FC
Barcelona Regal cruised to an 88-61 victory over Asseco Prokom on
Thursday night in its home opener at Palau Blaugrana. Erazem Lorbek
scored 20 points, Juan Carlos Navarro had 14 and Marcelinho Huertas 11
– with the latter two dishing 5 assists each – to lead the Spanish
champs. Prokom played tough early and led 30-33 midway through the
second quarter, but the hosts roared back behind Navarro to lead 47-36
at the break and were never in trouble again. Barcelona was greatly
aided by its strong team defense, which forced 17 turnovers, and by the
presence of Kosta Perovic inside, who turned it 4 blocked shots. Read
more here.
Real Madrid 85 - 78 Emporio Armani
Real
Madrid took the showdown between undefeated teams in Group C by downing
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano 85-78 in front of a sellout crowd of almost
11,000 fans at the Caja Magica in the Spanish capital on Thursday.
Madrid became the only defeated team atop the Group C standings at 2-0
while Milano dropped to 2-2. Jaycee Carroll led the winners with 21
points on 4-of-4 triples. Rudy Fernandez added 17, Segrio Llull had 13
while Marty Pocius got 11 for Madrid. Drew Nicholas led Milano with 24
points. Malik Hairston added 14 while Danilo Gallinari had 12 for the
guests. Milano led for the best part of the game, getting a 14-18 edge
after 10 minutes and keeping a 36-39 margin at halftime. Read more here.
Galatasaray Medical Park 64 - 68 Unics
The
Group D showdown between two Turkish Airlines Euroleague newcomers on
Thursday was solved in favor of Unics Kazan, who beat Galatasaray
Medical Park on the road by 64-68 after trailing for almost 38 minutes.
Galatasaray dominated the score thanks to Darius Songaila first and
Josh Shipp later. Unics was struggling but when Aleksey Savrasenko and
Lynn Greer were together on court, things started ticking. It wasn't
until the last quarter when Henry Domercant also woke up and Unics got
closer. Two straight threes by Mike Wilkinson and Terrell Lyday with
2:20 to go put theguests ahead for the first time and for good. Read
more here.
October 27, 2011 - ESPN UK expands Turkish Airlines Euroleague broadcast schedule
More
basketball fans than ever before in the United Kingdom will be able to
enjoy the Turkish Airlines Euroleague during the 2011-12 season thanks
to a new agreement between Euroleague Basketball and ESPN UK. The
agreement is the latest and most expansive of a series in which ESPN UK
has procured exclusive rights to broadcast Euroleague games across the
United Kingdom. ESPN UK started broadcasting Euroleague games with the
2010 Final Four. Last season, its coverage expanded to include the Top
16 and the Playoffs. Now, ESPN UK will offer UK basketball fans weekly
coverage of the Euroleague for the first time by showing every Game of
the Week all season long, up through and including the 2012 Turkish
Airlines Final Four in Istanbul next May. Read more here.
October 26, 2011
Anadolu Efes 79 - 80 Belgacom Spirou
Belgacom
Spirou worked hard to edge Anadolu Efes 79-80 in a Group C nail-biter
at Abdi Ipekci Sports Hall in Istanbul on Wednesday as clutch shooting
by Justin Hamilton in the final seconds made the difference. Both teams
now have 1-1 records. Efes needed to play catch up after falling behind
10-24 in the first quarter. Caleb Green led the winners with 18 points,
including 4-of-6 shooting from downtown, while Demond Mallet added 14,
Christophe Beghin 13 and Hamilton came through with 12 points and 7
assists. Hamilton rescued the game with a clutch jumper under pressure
with 11 seconds to go, followed by 2 crucial free throws that sealed
the result. Read more here.
Caja Laboral 81 - 69 Bennet Cantu
Caja
Laboral stayed unbeaten in Group A by downing Bennet Cantu 81-69 in
Vitoria, Spain on Wednesday. Laboral moved up to 2-0 to take sole
possession of first place - even when Bizkaia Bilbao Basket can join it
if it beats Sluc Nancy tomorrow. Cantu dropped to 1-1 but its chances
to go to the Top 16 are still intact. Mirza Teletovic had 12 of his 22
points in the fourth quarter. He had all points in an 8-0 run that
allowed Laboral to get full control of for good. Milko Bjelica added
17, Thomas Huertel had 11 while Kevin Seraphin had 10 for the winners.
Vladimir Micov led Cantu with 14 points. Read more here.
KK Zagreb 62 - 81 Panathinaikos
Reigning
Turkish Airlines Euroleague champion Panathinaikos put on a defensive
display as it routed KK Zagreb 62-81 in the latter’s first ever
Euroleague home game. The Greens started strong and never let up in
bringing their record to 2-0 in Group B. Panathinaikos head coach
Zeljko Obradovic was able to split the minutes among his charges as all
12 players in uniform played a minimum of 10 minutes and all but one of
them scored. Romain Sato led the way with 13 points, Nick Calathes and
Steven Smith tallied 12 apiece, Mike Batiste scored 10 and Euroleague
MVP Dimitris Diamantidis quarterbacked them with 8 assists. Read more here.
CSKA Moscow 94 - 74 Brose Baskets
CSKA
Moscow took the big showdown between undefeated teams in Group B by
downing Brose Baskets 94-74 in the Russian capital on Wednesday. CSKA
went up to 2-0 before playing back-to-back road games in this group.
Brose dropped to 1-1 and faces a critical showdown against Unicaja next
week. Nenad Krstic paced the winners with 19 points on 9-of-9
two-pointers. Andrey Vorontsevich added 13 while Andrei Kirilenko had
12 and 6 assists for CSKA. Tibor Pleiss led Brose with 17 points.
Julius Jenkins added 15 while PJ Tucker had 10 for the guests. An
outstanding Kirilenko and a three-pointer by Vorontsevich helped CSKA
to get a 24-14 lead after 10 minutes. Read more here.
October 26, 2011 - Bertomeu confirms significant changes in Euroleague format
During
his visit to Athens earlier in the day, Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu
has confirmed some key changes to Euroleague, starting next season.
Changes include the day of games, the number of games during the season
and the number of teams in the qualifying phase. Euroleague's Top16
phase will be played with two groups, each consisting of eight clubs.
Thus, each club will play eight extra games, fourteen instead of six
before. A Final Four club could potentially play up to 31 games. Second
most significant change is the days during which Euroleague games will
be played. Instead of current Wednesday and Thursday gamedays,
Euroleague will keep Thursday and introduce Friday as the main gameday.
Read more here.
October 25, 2011 - Euroleague Basketball, bwin partnership presented in Athens
The
dynamic new partnership between Euroleague Basketball and bwin.party
digital entertainment was the subject of a presentation ceremony in
Athens on Wednesday with representatives of Greece's most emblematic
Turkish Airlines Euroleague clubs, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, and
Eurocup club PAOK, joining in the fun. Euroleague Basketball and bwin
this year recently announced to a three-year marketing and media rights
agreement for Euroleague events that will run through June of 2014.
Wednesday's ceremony featured comments from Jordi Bertomeu, President
and CEO of Euroleague Basketball, as well as those of Mr. Thomas
Tzokas, the bwin.party Director for Eastern Europe. Read more here.
October 25, 2011
Unicaja 85 - 78 Zalgiris Kaunas
Unicaja
came from behind to force overtime and then rode the hot hand of
Kristaps Valters and the dominance inside of Joel Freeland for an 85-78
victory over Zalgiris Kaunas on Tuesday night at Martin Carpena Arena
in Malaga, Spain. Freeland, who led Unicaja with 21 points and 12
rebounds, scored 7 points in the extra session and Valters, who
finished with 20, nailed 2 clutch three-pointers in overtime to help
steer Unicaja to its first Group B win in its second game. Tremmell
Darden added 10 points for the winners and Berni Rodriguez was also
strong at both ends of the floor, including hitting 2 free throws in
the final minute of regulation time that evened the score at 67-67.
Read more here.
October 22, 2011 - Week 1 bwin MVP: Andrei Kirilenko, CSKA Moscow
One
player's return to his former club to start the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season couldn't have gone better if he had scripted it
himself. Forward Andrei Kirilenko was simply unstoppable as CSKA Moscow
defeated Zalgiris Kaunas 74-87 in Monday's opening game of the season.
Kirilenko's performance index rating of 37 would prove the highest
among all Euroleague players, earning him the bwin MVP honor for
regular season Week 1! Kirilenko played inspired basketball from the
opening tip in Kaunas, en route to an amazing performance that included
17 points on 6 of 10 two-point shots, 1 of 2 threes and 2 of 4 free
throws. Read more here.
October 21, 2011 - Week 1
Bizkaia Bilbao Basket 76 - 61 Olympiacos
On
a night to remember for the lucky fans who witnessed it live, Bizkaia
Bilbao Basket handily defeated visiting Olympiacos 76-61 on Friday,
leading from tipoff to buzzer in the city's first-ever game in the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague. An estimated 9,000 fans packed Bilbao
Arena for the occasion, and they raised the roof as their team slowly
but surely pulled away to a debut victory. After a 5-5 in the first
quarter, Bilbao repeatedly pulled ahead by double-digits, calmly
withstanding a couple runs that Olympiacos used to draw within 2 points
before and after halftime. Marco Banic led the winners with 22 points
on near-perfect shooting: 7 for 9 on two-pointers and 8 for 8 from the
foul line. Read more here.
October 20, 2011
Belgacom Spirou 76 - 100 Real Madrid
Real
Madrid opened the Turkish Airlines Euroleague season in resounding
fashion, cruising to a 76-100 victory against Belgacom Spirou on the
road at the Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium. Madrid increased its
domination with each quarter as the Belgian squad found itself
outmanned inside, often leaving Madrid's shooters open with good looks
outside. Madrid led by 8 points at halftime, 37-45, progressively
widening the lead after that. Felipe Reyes and Rudy Fernandez shared
the scoring honors for Madrid with 19 apiece. Reyes was a model of
efficiency, shooting 77% from the field while leading the team with 9
rebounds. Read more here.
Brose Baskets 96 - 65 KK Zagreb
Brose
Baskets Bamberg opened their 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season
in convincing fashion with a dominating 96-65 victory at home over KK
Zagreb in Group B. P.J. Tucker led the way with 20 points while Casey
Jacobsen and Marcus Slaughter each added 16 points for the two-time
reigning German champion Brose Baskets, who caused 20 turnovers by
Zagreb. Predrag Suput also had 15 points and Julius Jenkins chipped in
10 points for the host side. Zagreb was playing less than a week after
replacing coach Ivica Buric on October 14 with Vlado Androic. Read more
here.
Emporio Armani 89 - 82 Maccabi Electra
EA7 Emporio Armani
opened the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague in style by downing
difficult Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 89-82 in Milano, Italy in Group C on
Thursday night. Milano survived a strong test and will battle for first
place in Group C against Real Madrid next week. Malik Hairston paced
the winners with 25 points. Danilo Gallinari added 23, Ioannis
Bourousis had 13 and 10 rebounds while Mason Rocca got 10 points for
Milano. Lior Eliyahu led Maccabi with 23 points. David Blu added 15
while Theo Papaloukas had 13 for the guests. Bourousis shined early to
give Milano a 14-7 lead but a 0-14 run that Tal Burstein capped with a
driving layup allowed Maccabi to get a 14-21 margin early in the second
quarter. Read more here.
Panathinaikos 98 - 77 Unicaja
Turkish
Airlines Euroleague champion Panathinaikos looked none the worse for a
rough training camp when it opened its title defense by thrashing
Unicaja of Spain 98-77 at home in Athens on Thursday. The Greens, who
were missing Stratos Perperoglou and Kostas Tsartsaris due to injury,
showed that their offense is finely tuned and their defense can rise to
any occasion. They turned a 52-49 halftime lead into a blowout by
starting the third and fourth quarters with stifling defense. Reigning
MVP Dimitris Diamantidis led seven Panathinaikos scorers in double
figures with 17 points, 7 assists and 3 steals. Romain Sato followed
with 16 points, Kostas Kaimakoglou and Steven Smith 13 each, Nick
Calathes 12 and Sarunas Jasikevicius 10. Read more here.
Union Olimpija 64 - 86 FC Barcelona Regal
FC
Barcelona Regal started the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague on the
right foot, for the 11th time out of 12 occasions in season openers,
with a convincing 64-86 road win at Union Olimpija on Thursday night.
Union Olimpija managed to keep up in the first half thanks to rookie
Danny Green's points, but in the second half, the combined effort of
the guests led by Marcelinho Huertas broke the game open for good.
Barca therefore startes its Group D journey with a 1-0 record while
Olimpija will have to get to next week with a 0-1. Huertas led the
winners with his 17 points, Pete Mickeal added 15 in his comeback sine
November 2010, and Fran Vazquez posted 10. Read more here.
Partizan mt:s 73 - 84 Anadolu Efes
Anadolu
Efes started the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season in style by
downing Partizan mt:s 73-84 in Belgrade, Serbia in Group C on Thursday.
Efes overcame a strong basketball atmosphere at Pionir Arena to
register its first road win and improve its chances to get to the Top
16 in difficult Group C. Tarence Kinsey led the winners with 18 points.
Dusko Savanovic added 17, Sasha Vujacic had 14 while Ersan Ilyasova got
10 for Efes. Nikola Pekovic led Partizan with 21 points in less than 20
minutes. Milan Macvan added 14 while Dragan Milosavljevic had 10 for
the hosts. An unstoppable Pekovic led Partizan to a 28-27 lead after 10
minutes. Back-to-back three-pointers by Milosavljevic soon boosted the
hosts' lead to 40-33 late in the second quarter. Read more here.
October 19, 2011
Bennet Cantu 80 - 69 SLUC Nancy
Bennet
Cantu celebrated its long-awaited return to the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague with an 80-69 victory over SLUC Nancy on Wednesday. Andrea
Cinciarini led the winners with 15 points on near-perfect shooting, but
it was Cantu’s defense that was the story of the game. The hosts jumped
ahead by holding Nancy to just 8 third-quarter points. And when Nancy
started to push to come back, the aggressive Cantu defense resulted in
several knocked passes and steals that limited the visitors’
effectiveness. Clever passing and big shots down the stretch allowed
Cantu to win its first game in Europe’s premier basketball competition
since 1994. Vladimir Micov added 14 points and Marko Scekic came off
the bench for 11 to help head coach Andrea Trinchieri’s side. Read more
here.
Asseco Prokom 72 - 76 Galatasaray MP
Galatasaray
Medical Park registered its first-ever Turkish Airlines Euroleague win
by holding off a wild fourth-quarter rally to stop Asseco Prokom 72-76
in Gydnia, Poland in Group D on Wednesday night. Jaka Lakovic led the
winners with 21 points on 6-of-7 triples and 4 assists. Preston
Shumpert added 12 points while Luksa Andric had 11 for Galatasaray.
Adam Hrycaniuk and Donatas Motiejunas led Prokom with 15 points apiece.
Oliver Lafayette added 12 while Alonzo Gee had 10 and 9 rebounds for
the hosts, that used a 10-0 run which bridged between the opening two
quarters to get a 23-21 lead. An outstanding Motiejunas helped Prokom
to extend its margin to 37-32 at halftime. Read more here.
Fenerbahce Ulker 66 - 69 Caja Laboral
Caja
Laboral picked up a crucial 66-69 opening night road win over
Fenerbahce Ulker at Abdi Ipekci Arena in Istanbul as Mirza Teletovic
scored 23 and Pablo Prigioni controlled the backcourt with 7 assists
and 6 steals. It was a thrilling finish as both teams held slim leads
in the closing minutes and the hosts had the last possession with a
chance to tie, but Omer Onan missed from downtown. Teletovic featured a
few slams and 3 triples in his arsenal to lead the winners. Milko
Bjelica added 12 points for Laboral and Kevin Seraphin netted 10 plus 6
rebounds in 15 minutes in his Turkish Airlines Euroleague debut. Onan
finished with 16 to pace FB Ulker and Roko Ukic and James Gist added 10
apiece. Read more here.
Unics 71 - 79 Montepaschi Siena
Montepaschi
Siena had a strong start in Turkish Airlines Euroleague's Group D by
rallying from a double-digit deficit to top Unics 71-79 in Kazan,
Russia on Wednesday night. Montepaschi grabbed its first road win right
away and Unics could not please its fans with a win in their team's
Turkish Airlines Euroleague debut. Bo McCalebb paced the winners with
17 points. Rimantas Kaukenas added 14 while David Andersen had 13 for
Montepaschi. Henry Domercant led Unics with a Euroleague career-high 30
points. Nathan Jawai added 11 for the hosts. Kelly McCarty, Domercant
and free throws by Terrell Lyday allowed Unics to get a 24-20 lead
after 10 minutes. Read more here.
Euroleague Basketball is proud to announce a new
agreement that will bring Turkish Airlines Euroleague games to more
basketball fans in Germany during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons than
ever before. The agreement reinforces Euroleague Basketball's efforts
to expand the visibility of the competition in existing markets as well
as new ones. "We have already had a great relationship with Sport1 in
Germany and we are confident that this new agreement will only enhance
the viewing experience for fans in that market, creating an even bigger
audience there," said Andrea Bassani, Euroleague Basketball's Chief of
Television and New Media Rights Officer. Read more here.
October 17, 2011 - Zalgiris Kaunas 74 - 87 CSKA Moscow
CSKA
Moscow never trailed as it unveiled its new roster and shined bright en
route to an impressive 74-87 victory over Zalgiris Kaunas in the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Opening Game Monday at Zalgirio Arena. In
his first Euroleague action in a decade, Andrei Kirilenko teamed with
former Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic to pepper the opening game record
book, while Alexey Shved came through with a Euroleague career-high 19
points. Kirilenko finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 4
blocks to set a new standard for performance index rating in the
opening game with 37. He also now has the second most rebounds and
blocks in opening game history. Read more here.
October 17, 2011 - Opening game press conference
A
sense of history and tradition were present at a press conference on
Monday prior to the opening game of the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season in Kaunas, Lithuania. As the press and basketball
While Zalgiris and CSKA warmed up for the first tipoff of the new
season, the dignitaries on hand met the press for an event that also
saluted a competition legend and gave him the chance to say goodbye.
Marcus Brown, who retired last week as the Euroleague's all-time top
scorer, joined Euroleague Basketball President & CEO Jordi
Bertomeu, Zalgiris president and basketball legend Arvydas Sabonis,
Zalgiris owner Vladimir Romanov and Mayor of Kaunas Rimantas Mikaitis
to open a new Euroleague season and to celebrate the career of one of
the best American players in European basketball history. Read more here.
October 17, 2011 - Four nights of opening-week action!
The 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season tips
off with its fullest week of action ever, 12 games spanning the
continent over four nights between Monday and Friday. The 10-game
regular season starts with the traditional opening game, in which
age-old rivals Zalgiris welcomes CSKA Moscow at the state-of-the-art
Zalgirio Arena in Group B on Monday. The opening game will mark a
return of CSKA head coach Jonas Kazlauskas to face the team he led to
the 1999 Euroleague title. It will also be an occasion to honor
legendary shooting guard Marcus Brown, who played for both teams and
retired last week as the Euroleague’s all-time leading scorer with
2,715 points. Read more here.
October 17, 2011 - Turkish Airlines Euroleague starts today!!!
Zalgiris
and CSKA will play opening game of 2011/2012 Euroleague season. The
most of fans, coaches and people from Basketball world expects that
this season will be the most interesting until now. One of the reasons
is definitely that many players from NBA came to Europe and they will
stay here and play as long as Lock-out lasts. In many media sources
around the world they call this competition "European NBA".
December
2011 may go down in history as the month that Nikola Mirotic completed
his upgrade from prominent role player to a bonafide ace. The Real
Madrid forward has long been seen as a promising talent, hence his
choice as the 2011 Rising Star Trophy winner. But in four games in
December, Mirotic dominated like never before in leading his team to a
perfect record with wins over three other Turkish Airlines Euroleague
Top 16 teams to clinch first place in Group C and a No. 1 seed in the
Top 16 Draw. For his outstanding performances in leading his team to
outstanding results, Mirotic has become Euroleague Basketball's choice
as bwin MVP for December. Read more 
For
the second week in a row, Montepaschi Siena guard Pietro Aradori took
advantage of an opportunity to play extended minutes and proceeded to
improve his Euroleague career highs in every major statistical category
in leading the Italian champions to victory. What’s more, Aradori’s
performance against Asseco Prokom on Wednesday earned him Week 10 bwin
MVP honors. Aradori is only two weeks past his 23rd birthday and now
showing signs of stardom predicted when he was a Euroleague rookie five
seasons ago. After leading the team to a come-from-behind victory over
previously undefeated FC Barcelona Regal in Week 9, Aradori shined even
brighter on the road in Poland with 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals
– all career bests – en route to a performance index rating of 33,
which was the best seen in the Euroleague on the final games of the
2011-12 regular season. Read more 
A
classic showdown on Thursday night in Pionir Arena took place for a Top
16 spot, and when the dust settled 
Gescrap
BB made club history on Thursday with a 77-72 victory over rival Caja
Laboral at Bilbao Arena to advance to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague
Top 16 for the first time ever. The result created a three-way tie
between Gescrap, Bennet Cantu and Caja Laboral with 5-5 records, but
after the tiebreaker, Bilbao was left in fourth place and Caja Laboral
in fifth, meaning it would miss the Top 16. Marko Banic shined for
Gescrap with 18 points, Janis Blums added 11 and Alex Mumbru 10. Milko
Bjelica led Caja Laboral with 15 points and 7 rebounds and Pablo
Prigioni scored 13, but Mirza Teletovic, who finished the regular
season as the Euroleague’s top scorer with 21.7 points per game, was
held to a season-low 12 points. Read more 
Fenerbahce
Ulker scored a monumental win to not only reach the Top 16, but to
climb to first place in Group A with a tough 76-83 victory at Bennet
Cantu. Oguz Savas scored a season-high 21 points to pace the Turkish
champs, who improved to 6-4 in handing Cantu its first loss of the
season. Cantu dropped to 5-5, but also heads to the next stage from
third place in the group. Bojan Bogdanovic added 19 with two crucial
three-pointers for FB Ulker and Roko Ukic added 17 - 14 of which came
in the second half. Giorgi Shermadini and Maarten Leunen scored 13
apiece for Cantu and veteran Denis Marconato added 10. Read more 
Olympiacos
BC Pireaus finished second in regular season Group A by edging SLUC
Nancy 74-79 at the Palais des Sports Jean Weille in France on Thursday.
Olympiacos finished this group with a 6-4 second and was second due to
its tie-break disadvantage with Fenerbahce Ulker. As such, the Reds
avoided Montepaschi Siena, Panathinaikos BC Athens and Maccabi Electra
in the upcoming Top 16 draw, which takes place next Wednesday. Nancy
was sixth in Group A with a 3-7 record. Pero Antic led the winners with
20 points. Georgios Printezis added 18 while Kyle Hines pulled down 12
boards for Olympiacos. Jamal Shuler led Nancy with 18 points. Adrien
Moerman added 11 while Victor Samnick had 10 for the hosts. Read more 
Real
Madrid dominated the second half to down Anadolu Efes 66-75 and record
its sixth straight win on Thursday at the site of the 2012 Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Final Four, the Sinan Erdem Arena in Istanbul,
Turkey. The hosts dominated early and led by 17 in the second quarter,
but the Whites closed the gap to 43-36 by halftime and outscored Efes
by 8 in each of the last two quarters to register the win and improve
to 8-2. Nikola Mirotic paced the winners with 16 points and Jaycee
Carroll, Sergio Llull and Kyle Singler added 12 apiece. Dusko Savanovic
posted 15 points and 11 rebounds for the home team, which finished the
regular season third in Group C with a 5-5 record. Read more 
FC
Barcelona Regal bounced back from its first loss in the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague by blowing out Galatasaray Medical Park 79-50 to
finish Group D action with a victory. Barcelona proved that it did not
need all-time leading scorer Juan Carlos Navarro – out with plantar
fasciitis – in easing to a 9-1 record. Boniface Ndong led the way with
16 points – 11 of those in the third quarter – 6 rebounds and 4 blocks
while Erazem Lorbek tallied 13 points. Victor Sada chipped in 6 points,
6 rebounds and 4 assists and Marcelinho Huertas had 9 points.
Galatasaray, which had already booked a Top 16 spot by securing fourth
place regardless of the result, dropped to 4-6 in the group. Cevher
Ozer led Galatasaray with 11 points. Read more 
Zalgiris
Kaunas routed KK Zagreb 87-76 to claim its third victory in four games
and complete an improbable comeback to reach the Top 16. The Lithuanian
champs improved to 4-6 and secured fourth place in Group B at the end
of the regular season. Zagreb got off to a fast start, but came undone
when leading scorer Krunoslav Simon limped off with an injury. Then
Sonny Weems scored 8 in a 20-3 Zalgiris charge as the hosts took take
control. A 13-2 blitz to start the second quarter made it 41-20 and
Zalgiris never looked back. Zagreb did get as close at 7 in the final
minutes, but Marko Popovic drilled a clutch triple to ice the win and
start the celebrations. Read more 
One
week after he was formally awarded his bwin MVP for November 2011
trophy, CSKA Moscow center Nenad Krstic was back at it. The big man was
a force inside in racking his second double-double in as many games
against defending champion Panathinaikos to lead CSKA to a convincing
91-75 victory. The result not only secured CSKA first place in Group B
and a No. 1 seed in the upcoming Top 16 Draw, but also lifted the
Russian champs to 9-0 the only team in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague
this season with a perfect record through nine games. Krstic was a
model of efficiency with 17 points on just 9 shots attempted. He was 9
for 10 from the free-throw line, grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked 1 shot
and drew 8 fouls to finish with a performance index rating of 31, which
was the best among all the players that took the court in Week 9. Read
more 
Montepaschi
Siena staged a dramatic come-from-behind Group D victory at home on
Thursday night to hand FC Regal Barcelona its first loss of the season,
77-74. The win gave Siena a 7-2 record versus 8-1 for Barcelona, which
still secured its status as group champion because of a greater margin
of victory against the Italian champs last month. But for injury-ridden
Siena, it was a victory to relish after falling behind 47-62 early in
the fourth quarter. With scrappy defense and clutch shooting by Igor
Rakocevic, who led the team with 21 points, and Pietro Aradori, who
added 20, Siena outscored seemingly unbeatable Barcelona 30-12 in the
final nine minutes. Read more 
Zalgiris
Kaunas went to Bamberg and recorded a crucial 68-82 win against Brose
Baskets in Group B to take control of its own destiny in the final game
of the regular season. Both teams now hold a 3-6 record, but the
Lithuanian champions hold a tiebreaker and all they need is a victory
at home over KK Zagreb next week to clinch a Top 16 spot. Zalgiris led
from start to finish as it went in front early and never allowed the
home team to even tie the game. Zalgiris broke the game open with a
huge run in the second quarter that got them to 18-point advantage.
Sonny Weems and Mantas Kalnietis scored 14 points each, Marko Popovic
added 13 and Paulius Jankunas had a big game with 10 points and 14
rebounds. Read more 
Maccabi
Electra had a resounding home win on Thursday night against Anadolu
Efes, 96-57, in the battle for second place in Group C. The game was a
close story during the first half as both teams went back and forth.
However, in the third quarter, powerful inside play and a single man,
David Blu, later allowedMaccabi to pull away for good. Now, Maccabi has
sole possession of the second place in Group C with a 6-3 record while
Efes drops to 5-4. Both teams had already advanced to the Top 16 prior
to this game. Blu led the winners with his 18 points including 4 of 6
threes. Read more 
Olympiacos
improved its chances to make it to the Top 16 in difficult Group A by
thrashing already qualified Bennet Cantu 86-61 in the Pireaus, Greece
on Thursday. Olympiacos and Cantu joined Caja Laboral and Fenerbahce
Ulker in a four-way tie for first place, each with a 5-4 record.
Olympiacos will get to the Top 16 if it beats already eliminated Nancy
on the road but could also got through with loss depending on other
results. Cantu can rank anywhere from first to fourth in regular season
Group 10. Vassilis Spanoulis led the winners with 22 points. Georgios
Printezis added 16, Kyle Hines had 12 while Lazaros Papadopoulos got 10
for Olympiacos. Read more 
Gescrap
BB boosted its Top 16 chances with a 70-80 road win over Fenerbahce
Ulker at Sinan Erdem Arena on Thursday night. D’Or Fischer dominated
with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks to lead the men in black as
they improved to 4-5 in tough Group A. Roger Grimau added 13 points,
Aaron Jackson tallied 11 points and 6 assists and Marko Banic scored 10
for the winners. Bilbao was determined from the start as it raced to a
6-15 opening and kept the pressure on. It was 33-44 at halftime and
then Gescrap scored the first 8 points of the second half. Fenerbahce
made small runs to get back led by Emir Preldzic, but never got close
enough to seriously threaten the outcome. Read more 
Top
16 qualifier Unics didn't have any problems to blast Asseco Prokom at
home on Thursday afternoon by 68-41. The defense of the hosts beat a
record in the process as it kept Prokom to 11 points in the first half.
The win allows already-qualified Unics to improve its record to 6-3 in
Group D while Asseco Prokom who was eliminated before this game, drops
to 1-8. Henry Domercant led the way for the winners with 18 points,
Terrell Lyday added 12 and Kelly McCarty posted 10. For Prokom, only
Jerel Blassingame scored in double digits with his 10 points. Read more
Unicaja
secured a spot in the Euroelague Top 16 for the seventh season in a row
after downing KK Zagreb 67-82 in Zagreb Arena on Wednesday. Carried by
big men Luka Zoric and Joel Freeland, and with some timely fourth
quarter three-pointers by Berni Rodriguez, Unicaja moved to 4-5 in
Group B with one game to go in the regular season. Zagreb, on the other
hand, dropped to 2-7 in its first Euroleague campaign and will need a
win in Kaunas and a lot of help from other teams to sneak into the next
round. Freeland led all scorers with 17 points along with 8 rebounds.
Zoric scored 16 and collected 8 rebounds, while Rodriguez scored 11
with all 3 of his three-point shoots coming in the final quarter. Read
more 
Caja
Laboral took an important step forward in its race to make the Top 16
by crushing SLUC Nancy 90-55 in a one-sided rout on Wednesday night.
Mirza Teletovic dominated with 22 first-half points – outscoring the
opposition himself in that period as Laboral took a 42-21 lead at the
break. Then the hosts dominated the third quarter to go up by more than
40 before easing up down the stretch. The win lifted Laboral to 5-4 and
edged the club closer to the Top 16. Nancy dropped to 3-6. Brad Olseon
added 14 points for the winners, Fernando San Emeterio scored 13,
Thomas Huertel 11 and Milko Bjelica 10 in a Laboral attack that shot 15
for 31 from downtown. Read more 
Like
a man dying of thirst who finds water, EA7-Emporio Armani Milan overran
visiting Belgacom Spirou by 88-53 on Wednesday - the hosts' biggest
Euroleague margin of victory this century - to stay in the race for the
Top 16 from Group C. Milan ended a four-game losing streak and raised
its record to 3-6, good for fifth place in the group. With fourth-place
Partizan losing at Real Madrid to fall to 4-5, Milan will go to
Belgrade in Week 10 for a winner-take-all showdown for the Group C's
last remaining Top 16 berth. Since Partizan won their first game 65-69,
Milan must win by 4 points or more next week to avoid its season being
ended. Read more 
Galatasaray
Medical Park celebrated a spot in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top
16 in its debut season in the competition after blasting visiting Union
Olimpija 80-59 on Wednesday at Abdi Ipecki Arena in Istanbul.
Galatasaray improved to 4-5 to grab the final Top 16 berth from Group
D, thus eliminating Olimpija along the way. The undermanned visitors
showed plenty of spirit and hung close for the first half, which ended
39-35. After Deon Thompson cut the lead to 2 early in the third
quarter, Darius Songaila and Luksa Andric each scored twice in a 10-0
lead as the hosts took control for good. Read more 
In
arguably one of the best games so far in the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague, CSKA Moscow became the regular season Group B champion by
downing archrivals Panathinaikos 91-75 in the Russian capital on
Wednesday. CSKA improved to 9-0 in Group B to clinch first place and
Panathinaikos dropped to 6-3 and will rank second at the end of this
round. Nenad Krstic led the winners with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Viktor Khryapa and Aleksey Shved each added 16 points, Jamont Gordon
had 12, Ramunas Siskauskas got 10 while Milos Teodosic dished 10
assists for CSKA. Ian Vougioukas had 17 points for Panathinaikos while
Steven Smith added 11 for the Greens. Read more 
With
the bright lights upon him in a primetime Game of the Week showdown for
first place in Group C, reigning Euroleague Rising Star Award winner
Nikola Mirotic shined brighter than ever in leading Real Madrid to a
convincing 88-64 victory over Maccabi Electra at Caja Magica on
Thursday night. In doing so, Mirotic poured in a career-high 26 points
and picked up Week 8 bwin MVP honors. Mirotic staked the Whites to
early leads with 12 first-quarter points and had 10 more in the second
quarter. His dunk early in the third quarter gave Madrid a double-digit
lead as the rest of the team joined in and put Maccabi away for good.
Read more 
Olympiacos
survived a valiant effort to hold on for an 84-82 victory over Caja
Laboral to remain alive in Group A of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.
Vassilis Spanoulis poured in 21 points and had 5 assists to lead
Olympiacos, which improved to 4-4 in the very balanced group. Kostas
Papanikolaou added 12 points off the bench, while Georgios Printezis
and Kyle Hines each scored 11 points as Olympiacos remained perfect at
home this season. Mirza Teletovic poured in a career-high 32 points for
Caja Laboral, which slipped to 4-4. Fernando San Emeterio scored 14
points and Pablo Prigioni collected 8 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and
4 steals in the loss. Read more 
Belgacom
Spirou foiled plans by Partizan mt:s to enter the Top 16 with an 84-79
win at the SpirouDome in Charleroi, Belgium, on Thursday night. The
victory – Spirou’s first at home this season – lifted the team’s record
to 2-6, however it was not enough to keep the Belgian champs’ hopes of
reaching the Top 16 alive. Partizan dropped to 4-4, but will advance to
the next stage with a win in either of its remaining games. looked
outmatched until the middle of the second quarter, when it used an 18-8
run to finish the half within 37-38, and then outscored Partizan 47-41
in the second half to claim the win. Read more 
Real
Madrid became the exclusive leader atop the Group C standings by
downing Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 88-64 in the Spanish capital on
Thursday. Madrid improved to 6-3 to climb to first place and became the
top candidate to win Group C. Maccabi dropped to 5-3 and now ties for
second place with its next opponent, Anadolu Efes. Nikola Mirotic paced
the winners with 26 points - a new Euroleague career-best. Jaycee
Carroll added 17 while Marty Pocius had 12 for Madrid. Keith Langford
led Maccabi with 17 points. Lior Eliyahu added 11 while Richard Hendrix
had 10 for the guests. Mirotic had 12 points in the first quarter to
give Madrid a 22-15 lead after 10 minutes. Read more 
Brose
Baskets took revenge on Unicaja and managed to pull a valuable road win
on Thursday night in Malaga, Spain by 79-90. The win allows Brose
Baskets to stay very much alive for the Top 16 race in Group B with a
3-5 record, the same as Unicaja, but also with the point differential
in favor of the German team. Brose Baskets managed to build a 17-point
lead, 25-42, thanks to a 2-20 run in the second quarter and a huge
Julius Jenkins. In the third quarter, Joel Freeland appeared for
Unicaja to cut the deficit down, but Casey Jacobsen and his three
threes in the last period helped the guests maintain a safe lead for
good. Jenkins led the winners with his 23 points, Marcus Slaughter
added 14, Anton Gavel had 12, Jacobsen chipped in with 11 and PJ Tucker
had a double-double of 11 points and 13 boards. Read more 
Fenerbahce
Ulker got much closer to clinch a Top 16 spot in Group A by downing
Sluc Nancy 53-73 at Palais des Sports Jean Weille, France on Wednesday.
Fenerbahce moved up to 5-3 and will make it to the Top 16 with another
win - even when it could also go through it loses its two remaining
games. Nancy dropped to 3-5 and will probably need to win its two
remaining games in other to advance. James Gist led the winners with 16
points. Bojan Bogdanovic and Curtis Jerrells each added 14 for
Fenerbahce. Jamal Shuler had 17 points for Nancy while Akin Akingbala
added 11. Bogdanovic shined in the first quarter to give Fenerbahce a
15-22 margin after 10 minutes. Read more 
Bennet
Cantu took a huge step towards a Top 16 spot as Ginaluca Basile’s
buzzer-beating three-pointer gave his team a 64-67 win over Gescrap BB
in a packed Bilbao Arena. It was the fifth victory for Cantu in
balanced Group A. Cantu hit 10 three pointers and led for the great
majority of the game, often holding a double-digit lead, but it looked
as the high-drama would extend into overtime when Kostas Vasiliadis
tied the game with 2.9 seconds to go. But Basile, who finished the game
with 7 points on 2-for-8 shooting, made a long and awkward three that
gave his team an important victory. Vladimir Micov scored all of his 13
points in the first half to lead Cantu, Giorgi Shermadini added 11
points and 5 rebounds and Maarten Leunen scored 10 and grabbed 5
rebounds. Read more 
Panathinaikos
locked at least second place in Group B and kept its chances to finish
first by downing Zalgiris 59-94 in Kaunas, Lithuania on Wednesday.
Panathinaikos improved to 6-2 in Group B and visits undefeated leader
CSKA Moscow next week in a high-profile showdown. Zalgiris dropped to
2-6 and faces a critical game against Brose Baskets in Bamberg, Germany
next week. Steven Smith and Nick Calathes paced the winners with 17
points apiece. Mike Batiste added 13 for Panathinaikos. Sonny Weems led
Zalgiris with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Marko Popovic added 14 points
for the hosts. Zalgiris led for the best part of the first quarter but
a layup by Ian Vougioukas gave Panathinaikos a 14-15 lead after 10
minutes. Read more 
CSKA
Moscow remained undefeated through eight games after downing visiting
KK Zagreb 87-74 in the Russian capital on Wednesday, but the game was a
lot closer than the final score would indicate. Zagreb rallied from a
double-digit third quarter deficit to take a brief lead late in that
quarter and CSKA only led 60-58 through 30 minutes after a Ramunas
Siskauskas triple. Zagreb toed it early in the fourth and was still
within 5 within six minutes to play, but Nenad Krstic played his best
down the stretch and helped CSKA pull away for the win. Jamont Gordon
paced the Russian champs with a season-high 18 points, Krstic posted 14
points and 9 rebounds, Sammy Mejia scored 13, Siskauskas 11 and Andrey
Vorontsevich netted 10. Read more 
Anadolu
Efes recorded its third straight victory on Wednesday night at Sinan
Erdem Arena in Istanbul by beating EA7 Emporio Armani 84-70 to clinch a
Top 16 berth. Efes dominated from start to finish in improving to 5-3
and ensuring a share of second place in Group C at the end of
Thursday’s games. Efes started the game with 8 straight points, added a
13-0 run that bridged the first and second quarters and reeled off 11
more unanswered later in the second quarter in building a 45-27
halftime lead. And Armani never got within single figures the rest of
the way. Sinan Guler led Efes with 14 points, Sasha Vujacic and Cenk
Akyol netted 12 apiece and Esteban Batista scored 10 as part of a
well-balanced team effort. Read more 
For
the first time this season the Euroleague’s weekly MVP honor is shared
by two players. And it couldn’t be more fitting. Two-time
All-Euroleague selection Erazem Lorbek of FC Barcelona Regal and Milan
Macvan of Partizan mt:s are two of the best big man in the game and
both starred in important wins for their respective teams en route to
sharing Week 7 bwin MVP honors. Lorbek needed just 25 minutes to
produce 15 points with just 2 missed shots plus 8 rebounds, 2 assists
and a block in posting a performance index rating of 25 as Barcelona
remained undefeated with a 45-76 road win at Asseco Prokom Gdynia. Read
more 
FC
Barcelona Regal kept its perfect record on Thursday night thanks to a
clear 45-76 road win at Asseco Prokom. The guests led by 10 at the
break but a 2-12 run to start the third period broke the game open for
good. Barca stands at the top of Group D with a 7-0 record and already
a berth in the Top 16. On the other hand, Prokom remains the only
winless team in the competition at 0-7 and is out of the race for the
Top 16. Victor Sada led the way for the winners with his best
Euroleague scoring performance ever for 17 points, including 3 of 3
triples, Erazem Lorbek added 15 points and 8 boards and Kosta Perovic
chipped in with 10. Read more 
Montepaschi
Siena advanced to the Top 16 on Thursday evening thanks to a thrilling
win over hosting Union Olimpija by 57-63. Despite a starting 0-10 for
the guests, Olimpija regrouped and thanks to smothering defense, even
managed to jump ahead. However, a final 2 of 19 from the arc was too
much for the hosts to bear and Montepaschi sealed the win with free
throws. The win allows Montepaschi to improve to 5-2 in Group D and
advances to the Top 16. This win also allows Unics, an earlier winner
over Galatasaray, advance to the Toop 16 as well with a 5-1 record in
its debut season. Union Olimpija is now 1-6 and has little options to
advance now. Read more 
Unics
got closer to the Top 16 in its first Turkish Airlines Euroleague
season by downing Galatasaray Medical Park 72-61 in Kazan, Russia on
Thursday. Unics improved to 5-2 in regular season Group D and will seal
its ticket to the next round if Montepaschi Siena beats Union Olimpija
in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in a game later Thursday. Galatasaray dropped
to 3-4, but keeps good chances to stay alive in the competition.
Terrell Lyday paced the winners with 17 points. Henry Domercant added
13 - all in the second half, Lynn Greer had 12 and Vladimir Vereemenko
tallied 11 points and 7 rebounds for Unics. Read more 
After
25 minutes of very even scoreboards, defending champions Panathinaikos
locked down its defense and pulled away to a solid 94-76 victory over
upstart KK Zagreb on Wednesday at OAKA arena in Athens, Greece. The
Greens raised their record to 5-2 and remain alone in second place in
Group D, while Zagreb's two-game win streak was halted, leaving the
visitors to share in a three-way tie for fourth place at 2-5 with Brose
Baskets and Zalgiris Kaunas. After sharing leads all game, Zagreb was
up 55-58 midway through the third quarter, which is when the
Panathinaikos defense went into overdrive. The result was a 24-4 run
over almost 10 minutes that made the victory look easier than it was.
Read more 
CSKA
Moscow continued its unbeaten run through Group B by downing Brose
Baskets Bamberg 78-81 on former MVP Milos Teodosic’s buzzer-beating
three-pointer. It was a thrilling game that saw the lead swing back and
forth throughout the 40 minutes and featured four lead changes in the
last five minutes. After freshly crowned November MVP Nenad Krstic tied
the game at 78-78 with 51 seconds left, Casey Jacobsen missed a triple
for the hosts and despite P.J. Tucker’s offensive rebound, Viktor
Khryapa stole the ball and Teodosic did not hesitate when given a
chance to win the game. Krstic paced CSKA with 20 points, Khryapa
tallied 19 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, Alexey Shved netted 14 and
Teodosic finished with 12 points and 5 assists. Read more 
Anadolu
Efes gave its Top 16 chances a serious boost with a 62-66 victory over
Belgacom Spirou at the SpirouDome in Charleroi, Belgium, on Wednesday
night. All-Euroleague forward Dusko Savanovic scored 16 points and
grabbed 10 rebounds as Efes won for the second week in a row and
improved to 4-3 in Group C. The visitors jumped out to an early lead
and never looked back. Efes was up by 17 early in the third quarter.
Demond Mallet scored 12 third-quarter points to keep the hosts’ hopes
alive and Spirou rallied in the final minute, but never came within a
shot of even tying the score. Stanko Barac added 12 points and 3 blocks
for the winners and Sasha Vujacic scored 10. Read more 
Zalgiris
registered its second win in Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season
Group B by downing Unicaja 67-65 in Kaunas, Lithuania on Wednesday
night. Zalgiris improved to 2-5 and rejoined the Top 16 race in this
group while Unicaja dropped to 3-4 but plays 2 of its 3 remaining games
in front of their fans. Sonny Weems led the winners with 18 points and
11 rebounds, including the go-ahead dunk in the final minute. Marko
Popovic added 11 points while Ty Lawson had 10 for Zalgiris. Gerald
Fitch led Unicaja with 15 points. Kristaps Valters and Joel Freeland
each added 12 while Luka Zoric had 11 for the guests. Read more 
For
the first time in its eight-year history, the Euroleague Basketball's
award for the best player each month will go to the same team twice in
a row as Nenad Krstic of CSKA Moscow has been chosen bwin MVP for
November. CSKA is one of just two Turkish Airlines Euroleague teams
undefeated through six games, and Krstic has had everything to do with
preserving that perfection in November. The 28-year-old center, playing
his first season for CSKA, got more and more efficient as the month
progressed. CSKA followed a pair of road victories, over KK Zagreb and
Panathinaikos Athens, with a pair of home wins against Unicaja and
Zalgiris Kaunas. Krstic had a key role in all four games, but was
biggest when it counted most. Read more 
All-Euroleague
small forward Fernando San Emeterio erupted for one of the best games
of his career Thursday to lead Caja Laboral to a crucial overtime
victory over Fenerbahce Ulker and in the process earned Week 6 bwin MVP
honors. San Emeterio scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed a
season-high 8 rebounds to pace Laboral in the 90-85 win. With the
pressure on and players tired after a grueling 40 minutes of
regulation, San Emeterio rose to the occasion with a three-pointer and
a floater in the lane early in the extra session that helped set the
sides apart. When the final buzzer sounded, San Emeterio had made 5 of
8 two-pointers, 3 of 4 threes and remained perfect from the line for
the season with 6 successful free throws. Read more 
F.C.
Barcelona Regal superstar Juan Carlos Navarro on Thursday night became
the all-time leading scorer since the Euroleague was founded in 2000!
Navarro’s left-handed layup off a Chuck Eidson steal at 5:30 of the
third quarter of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague game against Union
Olimpija at Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona gave him the record of 2,716
career points, previously held by recently-retired Marcus Brown. And
with plenty of time left in this game and the season, he will keep
adding to the record every time he takes the court. Navarro, 31, has
played his entire 11-season Euroleague career with his hometown club,
F.C. Barcelona. Read more 
Reigning
champion Panathinaikos blew a 17-point lead, but came back from a
4-point deficit with 15 seconds left to beat Unicaja Malaga 76-77 in a
crucial road victory in Group B. Reigning Euroleague MVP Dimitris
Diamantidis nailed 2 of his 7 three-pointers in the final 15 seconds to
bring his team back from an apparent defeat with 23 points. Steven
Smith and Romain Sato each scored 13 points as Panathinaikos improved
to 4-2 in the group and avoided losing a third straight game. Luka
Zoric helped Unicaja come back from a big hole with 21 points while
Tremmell Darden scored 13 points and Kristaps Valters added 11 points.
Read more 
KK
Zagreb CO continued its run of good form and stayed in contention for a
spot in the Top 16 with 86-74 victory over Brose Basket in Zagreb
Arena. The Ants rode the hot hand of Josh Heytvelt, who scored 5 of his
career-high 7 three-pointers in a span of three minutes in the third
quarter that sparked a 17-4 run, and then scored 7 unanswered points in
the fourth quarter to take his team to a 71-62 lead. Heytvelt finished
with 25 points and 12 rebounds, both career-highs. Team captain
Krunoslav Simon added 16 points and 12 rebounds, Mario Kasun had 15
points and 11 rebounds, Damir Mulaomerovic scored 13, and T.J. Ford -
in his Euroleague debut – dished out 10 assists in only 13 minutes on
the floor. Read more 
In
one of the most intense games so far in this 2011-12 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season, Caja Laboral improved its chances to reach the Top
16 and got in a better situation to win Group A by downing Fenerbahce
Ulker 90-85 in overtime in Vitoria, Spain on Thursday. Laboral improved
to 4-2 and now has a 2-0 record against Fener, that dropped to 3-3.
Fernando San Emeterio paced the winners with 25 points and 8 rebounds.
Milko Bjelica added 16 points, Brad Oleson had 13, Mirza Teletovic got
12 while Pablo Prigioni contributed 11 for Laboral. Bojan Bogdanovic
led Fener with 19 points. Oguz Savas added 14 while Curtis Jerrells and
Thabo Sefolosha each had 13 for the guests. Read more 
In
a night that will be remembered in Barcelona for a long time, the hosts
FC Barcelona Regal thrashed Union Olimpija on Thursday night by 72-46.
It was a night for the ages because it was then that star Juan Carlos
Navarro became the new Euroleague all-time top scorer, surpassing
Marcus Brown. With 5:30 to go in the third quarter, Chuck Eidson stole
the ball and fed Navarro for an easy layup that marked his 2716th point
in his Euroleague career since 2000. A record that will probably last
for a long time since Navarro has just extended his contract for two
more years with Barca. The win also allowed Barcelona to advance to the
Top 16 keeping a perfect 6-0 record in Group D, while Olimpija drops to
1-5. Read more 
Maccabi
Electra roared for its fifth straight Group C win behind a brilliant
performance from All-Euroleague center Sofoklis Schortsanitis in an
85-76 victory over EA7 Emporio Armani Milano at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv
on Thursday. Big Sofo scored a career-high 28 points as Maccabi
improved to 5-1 and remained alone atop the group standings.
Schortsanitis dominated the proceedings early as Maccabi took a
double-digit lead in the opening quarter. His 22nd points at the
halftime buzzer made it 52-38 at the break. Armani battled back led by
Danilo Gallinari to get within 3 in the third quarter, but Jordan
Farmar scored 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to steer
Maccabi to the win. Read more 
Galatasaray
Medical Park survived Asseco Prokom in a home game Thursday night that
ended 78-76 after overtime. Prokom was dominating the game, but an 11-1
by the hosts in the last minutes of the last period allowed them to
force overtime and then won in the extra period as Oliver Lafayette
missed the winning three. The win allows Galatasaray to improve to 3-3
while Prokom stays as the only winless team in the competition, 0-6.
Zaza Pachulia led the winners with 19 points and 10 boards, Preston
Shumpert added 13, Jamon Lucas 12 and Darius Songaila 10. For Prokom,
Donatas Motiejunas had 22 points and 10 boards while Przemyslaw
Zamojski added 15. Read more 
Real
Madrid improved to 4-2 in difficult Group C and got closer to seal a
Top 16 spot by downing Belgacom Spirou Basket 93-89 in the Spanish
capital on Thursday. Madrid stayed undefeated at home while Spirou
dropped to 1-5 and has slim chances to get to the next round. Marty
Pocius led the winners with 20 points, including the game-sealing free
throws with 5 secodns left. Jaycee Carroll added 16 while Nikola
Mirotic and Serge Ibaka each had 12 for Madrid. Ibaka added 5 blocks
and helped Madrid to outrebound Spirou by 35-24. Chris Hill led Spirou
with 18 points. Caleb Green added 17, Demond Mallet had 15, Justin
Hamilton got 13 while Toko Shengeila contributed 11 for the guests.
Read more 
Unics
Kazan scored a major road win by upsetting Montepaschi Siena 73-79 on
Wednesday night behind monster games from Henry Domercant and Vladimir
Veremeenko. With the win Unics tied Montepaschi for second place in
Group D at 4-2, though the Italian champs hold a tiebreak advantage
should they remain tied at the end of the regular season. Montepaschi
led by 6 late in the third quarter, but Unics dominated the fourth
quarter by surging ahead early and then limiting Siena to 12
fourth-quarter points. Domercant finished with 24 points and Veremeenko
tallied 21 points and 10 rebounds in playing all 40 minutes for the
winners. Read more 
Anadolu Efes improved its chances to clinch a Top 16 spot in difficult regular season Group C by 
Vassilis
Spanoulis scored 18 of his Euroleague career-high 29 points to lead
Olympiacos to a crucial 88-81 victory over Gescrap BB on Wednesday at
the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus, Greece. Spanoulis scored
the go-ahead basket, assisted on the bucket that put the Reds up 9 and
helped seal the win with 4 free throws in the final minute as
Olympiacos survived to improve to 3-3 in tightly wound Group A. The
loss dropped Gescrap to 2-4. Olympiacos jumped ahead to a 19-9 start,
but Bilbao came back to within 45-42 by halftime and led for much of
the third quarter. Alas Spanoulis turned up at his best in the fourth
quarter to steer Olympiacos to victory. Read more 
CSKA
became the first team to seal a ticket to the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague Top 16 by downing Zalgiris 95-82 in Moscow, Russia in Group
B on Wednesday. CSKA stayed undefeated and improved to 6-0 to keep
first place. Zalgiris dropped to 1-5 and needs to start winning right
away in order to keep its Top 16 options alive. Nenad Krstic paced the
winners with 21 points. Alexey Shved added 16, Andrey Vorontsevich and
Milos Teodosic each had 14 while Nikita Kurbanov got 10 for CSKA. Sonny
Weems led Zalgiris with 22 points. Marko Popovic and Tomas
Delininkaitis each added 12 while Milovan Rakovic had 10 for the
guests. Krstic helped CSKA to get an early 12-8 lead but Weems and
Rakovic made Zalgiris regain the lead, 24-25, after 10 minutes. Read
more 
With
a brilliant team-oriented performance that set a new standard for
efficiency, CSKA Moscow forward Andrei Kirilenko made sure to keep his
team undefeated while garnering Week 5 bwin MVP honors. Though
Kirilenko, who was also the opening week MVP as well as the winner of
the October MVP title, only recorded 3 shot attempts during his 35
minutes on the floor of CSKA’s 77-66 victory, he managed to score,
rebound and play defense to the fullest. Kirilenko finished the night
with 17 points on near perfect shooting – 1 of 2 two-pointers, 1 for 1
from behind the arc and 12 of 13 on free throws – plus 9 rebounds, 2
assists, 6 steals, 3 blocked shots and 7 fouls drawn to amass the
highest performance index rating in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague yet
this season: 39. Read more 
Real Madrid dominated
Anadolu Efes 104-84 at home to hang onto a tie for second place in
Group C. The win stopped a two-game slide for the Whites and improved
their record to 3-2. Jaycee Carroll paved the way with 19 points,
including 5 of 8 from beyond the arc., while Sergio Rodriguez racked up
a game-leading 10 assists. Madrid outshot Efes in all categories,
especially free throws, hitting 73% compared to 53% from the foul line.
Efes cut a deficit of 21 points early in the fourth quarter to just 7
with under five minutes to go, but Rudy Fernandez scored 8 of his 14 in
the final few minutes to help Madrid close out the game comfortably.
Nikola Mirotic added 17 points and Carlos Suarez had 15 for the
winners. Read more 
Brose
Baskets pulled off a shock in Group B of the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague by defending its home court with a 79-76 victory over
Panathinaikos. Predrag Suput led the way with 19 points while Julius
Jenkins had 13 points and Casey Jacobsen chipped in 10 in improving
Brose’s record to 2-3. Panathinaikos dropped to 3-2 despite 16 points
from Dimitris Diamantidis and 13 from Kostas Kaimakoglou. Nick Calathes
and Romain Sato both chipped in with 11 points. Neither team could
score in their first couple of possessions in the first two minutes
until Brian Roberts’ layup after a steal to put Bamberg ahead 2-0.
Diamantidis answered at the other end to make it 2-2. PJ Tucker was
very aggressive in the early going and drove hard to the basket for a
layup and Jacobsen’s triple from the left corner gave Brose a 7-2
advantage. Read more 
Despite
controlling the game in the first quarter, it was a much fought home
win for Maccabi Electra on Thursday night as it defeated Belgacom
Spirou by 69-59. The hosts led 22-11 after 10 minutes, but Demond
Mallet led the guests into a solid comeback that had them ahead by
50-54 after 30 minutes. However, a starting 10-0 to the last quarter
was good enough for Maccabi to pull the final win. With the win,
Maccabi improves to 4-1 to keep leading Group C while Spirou drops to
1-4 and will finish the first leg of the regular season in last place.
Read more 
Montepaschi
improved to 4-1 in Group D and took another step forwards to advance to
the Top 16 by downing Asseco Prokom Gdynia 84-73 in Siena, Italy on
Thursday. Rimantas Kaukenas led the winners with 15 points - all in the
second half. Bo McCalebb added 14, David Moss had 11 while David
Andersen got 10 for Montepaschi. Donatas Motiejunas led Prokom with 26
points and 9 rebounds. Oliver Lafayette added 19 points while
Przemyslaw Zamojski had 11 - all in the fourth quarter - for Prokom,
that dropped to 0-5. Ksistof Lavrinovic and McCalebb allowed
Montepaschi to get a 16-15 edge after 10 minutes. Read more 
FC
Barcelona Regal remained unbeaten after surviving a fourth -quarter
comeback from Galatasaray Medical Park to record a 66-70 road win on
Thursday night. Barca reached the midway point of the regular season
with a perfect record in Group D thanks to a 14-point effort from
Erazem Lorbek. Former MVP Juan Carlos Navarro added 12 in his quest to
become the all-time leading scorer in the competition. He now needs 14
points to achieve that distinction. The visitors dominated in the
second quarter to lead 29-44 at halftime and increased the advantage to
20 in the third quarter. But Galatasaray roared in the fourth quarter
as Barca missed shot after shot and eventually the hosts clawed their
way back within 2 with 10 seconds left. Read more 
Thanks
to a roaring comeback after the halftime break, Unics made sure Union
Olimpija didn't survive in Kazan on Thursday night and took its first
home win of the season by 81-51. With a 39-34 after 20 minutes, the
hosts stormed with a rain of threes that broke the game open and soon
earned a 20-point lead for Unics, who never looked back. The third
period ended with a 22-5 for Unics. The win allows the Kazan team to
improve to 3-2 in Group D to finish the first leg of the regular
season, while Union Olimpija dropped to 1-4. Terrell Lyday led all
scorers with 22 points, his highest of the season, including 7 of 8
two-point shots. Mike Wilkinson joined him with 21 points behind 4 of 5
threes and 13 points in the third quarter. Read more 
Olympiacos
survived a critical test in Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season
Group A by downing Sluc Nancy 91-78 in the Pireaus, Greece on
Wednesday. Olympiacos and Nancy join Gescrap Bizkaia in a three-way tie
for fourth place in Group A, all at 2-3 and just one win away from the
leaders - Caja Laboral, Fenerbahce Ulker and Bennet Cantu. Vassilis
Spanoulis paced the winners with 26 points and 6 assists. Michalis
Pelekanos added 11 points while Andreas Glyniadakis had 10 for
Olympiacos. Pelekanos lived up to his defensive reputation by limiting
Nancy superstar Nicolas Batum to just 9 points. Adrien Moerman led
Nancy with 20 points, John Linehan added 17 and Jamal Shuler 15. Read
more 
KK
Zagreb recorded its first ever Euroleague victory on Wednesday by
outlasting Zalgiris Kaunas 80-78 in a thriller in the Croatian capital.
Krunoslav Simon scored 22 points and Josh Heytvelt added 17 points and
11 rebounds to pace the winners. Zagreb dominated early and led by 15
in the second quarter, but Zalgiris came all the way back to set up a
very exciting fourth quarter, which featured 11 lead changes and four
ties. Paulius Jankunas tied the game at 78-78 with 27 seconds to go.
Zagreb kept the visitors in the game by making 2 of 4 free throws the
rest of the way, but Zalgiris committed a costly turnover and Mantas
Kalnietis missed at the buzzer, which allowed Zagreb to celebrate. Read
more 
A
local derby played for the first time on the international stage saw
Gescrap BB rally for a huge 84-89 victory over archrival Caja Laboral
before a shocked home crowd in Vitoria, Spain on Wednesday. Gescrap
raised its Group A record to 2-3 and will be tied for fourth place.
Caja Laboral lost its second straight and will share a mutliple tie for
first place at 3-2. Except for a pair of third-quarter possessions,
Gescrap had led the whole game until Caja Laboral surged ahead 81-76
with 3 minutes left. That's when Gescrap reacted with a 0-11 run
ingited by Alex Mumbru from downtown. Kostas Vasiliadis sealed the
victory at the foul line, sending Gescrap just 60 kilometers up the
road to Bilbao with something to celebrate. Read more 
In
an exciting battle that went down to the wire, Fenerbahce Ulker grabbed
its third consecutive win in Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season
Group A by edging Bennet Cantu 85-83 in overtime in Istanbul, Turkey on
Wednesday. Both teams are tied at 3-2 in the upper standing of this
group's standings. Omer Onan led the winners with 18 points. Thabo
Sefolosha added 14, Oguz Savas had 13, Bojan Bogdanovic and Roko Ukic
each got 12 while Gasper Vidmar contributed 10 for Fenerbahce. Gianluca
Basile and Nicolas Mazzarino led Cantu with 12 points apiece. Maarten
Leunen and Denis Marconato had 11 apiece for the guests. Read more 
CSKA
became the first team to 5 wins in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague this
season by downing visiting Unicaja 77-66 on Wednesday evening in Group
B. Former Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic scored 6 in an 8-0 charge late
in the second quarter that helped the hosts lead 34-29 at halftime.
Teodosic, Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved provided third-quarter
highlights as the Russian champs ran away with the game by taking the
lead past 20 points. Unicaja did mount a serious fourth quarter charge
through Berni Rodriguez and Tremmell Darden and eventually closed to
within 6 with a minute to play, but a Teodosic triple slammed the door
on that comeback and ensured the CSKA victory. Read more 
SLUC
Nancy forward Nicolas Batum was at his best against on Thursday with a
brilliant all-around performance to lead the French champs to a 90-85
win over previously unbeaten Caja Laboral. The victory made Nancy 2-0
at home this season and just like in their previous win in front of
French fans, Batum was the star of the show and subsequently earned
Week 4 bwin MVP honors. Batum amassed an impressive stat line of 21
points with just 3 missed shots in addition to 9 rebounds, 4 assists
and a block en route to a performance index rating of 35. Beyond the
numbers, Batum was also crucial to the Nancy effort in that he played
all 40 minutes – his average 39:26 minutes per game is most in the
league – and was clutch down the stretch with and 7 points in the
game's last 5 minutes. Read more 
After
a neck-and-neck battle throughout the game, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
pulled out a thrilling 76-81 win in the final minute against Belgacom
Spirou. The game featured numerous lead changes, but Milano prevailed
in the end, thanks to steady play from Antonis Fotsis, who led the team
with 19 points, and Danilo Gallinari, who added 17. Both players also
hit timely foul shots with the game on the line. Ioannis Bourousis was
also a factor for the visitors, establishing an effective low-post
game, especially in the final quarter. Spirou was led by Demond
Mallet’s 21 points, while Andre Riddick added 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Both Group C teams needed the win to stay in the upper half of the
standings, but it was Milan that lifted its record to 2-2, while Spirou
slipped to 1-3. Read more 
SLUC
Nancy picked up its second victory of the season and handed Caja
Laboral its first loss with a 90-85 decision in a thrilling
back-and-forth Group A encounter. Akin Akingbala scored 26 points to
lead Nancy in scoring while Nicolas Batum collected 21 points, 9
rebounds and 4 assists as Nancy improved to 2-2. Pape Philippe Amagou
added 16 points and Adrien Moerman chipped in 13 points for the
winners. Caja Laboral, who were facing Nancy for the first time since
1997, dropped to 3-1 despite 24 points from Mirza Teletovic, 19 points
by Fernando San Emeterio and 12 from Kevin Seraphin. Read more 
CSKA
Moscow survived an overtime thriller to remain undefeated by beating
Panathinaikos 76-78 in the latest classic showdown between the
Euroleague powerhouses. CSKA took sole possession of first place in
Group B with the come-from-behind win. It was an all-around effort for
the Russian champs, who got the job done at both ends of the intense
contest. Former Euroleague MVP Ramunas Siskauskas scored 14 to lead
CSKA against his former team. Nenad Krstic posted 13 points and 11
rebounds, Viktor Khryapa posted 11 points, 4 assists and 3 blocks,
Alexey Shved netted 10 and Andrei Kirilenko tallied 9 points, 11
rebounds and 5 rejections. Read more 
The
duel of Group D undefeated teams on Thursday night fell in favor of
hosting FC Barcelona Regal, who defeated Montepaschi Siena by 92-75. An
early run for 19-4 allowed the hosts to face the game calmly, while
Siena had to make up for big deficits from early on, and it never had a
chance to succeed. The win lifts Barcelona's record to a perfect 4-0 to
lead the group while Siena drops to 1-3. Chuck Eidson had his best
night since his arrival to Barcelona to lead his team with 22 points.
Erazem Lorbek, going through a sweet moment, helped with 17, and Boni
Ndong had 15. For Siena, Bo McCalebb led the way with 20 points,
Ksistof Lavrinovic had 13, David Andersen 12, Igor Rakocevic 11 and
Rimas Kaukenas 10.
Maccabi
Electra took the battle atop the Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular
season Group C standings by edging Anadolu Efes 72-79 in Istanbul,
Turkey on Thursday night. Maccabi became the first team to win a
Euroleague game in Sinan Erdem Arena - home of the 2012 Final Four -
this season and improved to 3-1 in Group C. Efes dropped to 2-2 and
registered its second home loss in this group. Jordan Farmar paced the
winners with 18 points. David Blu added 15 while Sofoklis Schortsanitis
and Lior Eliyahu each had 12 for Maccabi. Sasha Vujacic led Efes with
21 points while Stanko Barac added 17. A 0-6 run that Shawn James
capped with a dunk allowed Maccabi to get a 13-14 lead after 10
minutes. Read more 
In
a back and forth game at the Zalgirio Arena on Thursday, Zalgiris
Kaunas managed to pull its first win of the season thanks to a 81-70
thrilling win over Brose Baskets. The guests dominated the first
minutes but a stellar Sonny Weems put the hosts back in the game and
then ahead for good. However, Brose Baskets never surrendered and even
had the chance to tie the game again with 5 minutes left, but after
that, Zalgiris recovered and never looked back again to the delight of
its fans on the stands. Zalgiris therefore improves to 1-3 in Group B
while Brose drops to also 1-3. Weems was a beast in offense as he led
all scorers with 22 points, Marko Popovic added 13 for Zalgiris and
Milovan Rakovic had 12 points and 6 rebounds. Read more 
Unics
came from behind in the fourth quarter of an intense seesaw battle
against Asseco Prokom to pull out its second road win of the season
68-72. Henry Domercant came up big again with 15 fourth-quarter points,
including a clutch three-pointer with 36 seconds on the clock to lead
the winners. Unics improved its record to 2-2 in its first Turkish
Airlines Euroleague season. Prokom, despite leading by 5 midway through
the fourth quarter, fell to 0-4. Domercant led all scorers with 23
points. Kelly McCarty added 13 and Aleksey Savrasenko had 10 for Kazan.
Donatas Motiejunas paced Prokom with 19 points, while Michael Kuebler
knocked down 15 and Oliver Lafayette 14. Read more 
Another
party atmosphere in Desio, Italy ended in joy for the home fans again
as Bennet Cantu outlasted visiting Olympiacos 64-63 on a free throw
with 7.8 seconds left by Giorgi Shermadini. Cantu, in its return to the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague after a 17-year absence, raised its record
to 3-1, with all victories at home. With one game left to play in the
group, Nancy vs. Caja Laboral on Thursday, Cantu will either be alone
in second place or tied with both for the group lead at the end of the
week. Olympiacos, meanwhile, has dropped to 1-3, with its last two
defeats on the road by a combined 3 points, and shares a fifth-place
tie with Bizkaia Bilbao Basket. Read more 
Fenerbahce
Ulker grabbed its second consecutive win in Turkish Airlines Euroleague
regular season Group A by edging Bizkaia Bilbao Basket 70-73 on the
road on Wednesday. Fenerbahce moved up to 2-2 in Group A and improved
its chances to go to the Top 16. Bilbao went down to 1-3, registered
its third consecutive loss and needs to bounce back right away,
starting with its game against regional rivals Caja Laboral next week.
Bojan Bogdanovic led the winners with 19 points in just 22 minutes.
Curtis Jerrells added 15 while James Gist had 10 for Fenerbahce. Marko
Banic had 17 points for Bilbao while Kostas Vasileadis added 15.
Bogdanovic had 9 points late in the first quarter to give Fenerbahce a
21-26 lead after 10 minutes. Bilbao improved its defense and Banic
allowed his team to get a 36-32 margin at the break. Read more 
Unicaja
will move into a tie for second place in Group B after a 99-85 win over
KK Zagreb CO on Wednesday at Martin Carpena Arena in Malaga, Spain.
Unicaja improved to 3-1 and will join the loser of Thursday’s
Panathinaikos vs. CSKA duel in second place, one win behind the winner
and group leader. The visitors got off to a 0-9 start and led
throughout the first quarter, but Jorge Garbajosa and EJ Rowland keyed
a 16-0 blitz as the hosts took control midway through the second
quarter, led 49-41 at the half and never looked back. The lead reached
21 in the fourth quarter as Unicaja cruised to the win. Luka Zoric
paced six Unicaja scorers in double figures with 14 against his former
team, Joel Freeland added 13, Garbajosa and Rowland scored 12 each,
Berni Rodriguez 11 and Saul Blanco 10. Read more 
Galatasaray
Medical Park took a critical step forwards towards reaching the Turkish
Airlines Euroleague Top 16 in Group D by beating Union Olimpija 70-79
in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Wednesday night. Galatasaray moved up to 2-2
and will at least tie for third place at the end of this round.
Olimpija dropped to 1-3 and plays 4 of its next 5 games on the road. In
his first-ever Euroleague start at age 20, Furkan Aldemir paced the
winners with 18 points on 7-of-9 two-pointers and 11 rebounds. Josh
Shipp added 17 points, Preston Shumpert got 11 while Darius Songaila
had 10 for Galatasaray. Aleksandar Capin led Olimpija with 15 points.
Ratko Varda added 14 while Deon Thompson had 11 for the hosts. Read
more 
Jordan
Farmar delivered his finest performance to date since joining Maccabi
Electra Tel Aviv over the summer to lead the Israeli champs to an 88-82
victory over Real Madrid and earn Week 3 bwin MVP honors. Farmar, a
Euroleague rookie, had big shoes to fill this season when he took the
spot in the starting lineup of All-Euroleague point guard Jeremy Pargo,
who led the Israeli champs to the Euroleague title game last season.
But in a highly-anticipated showdown against the team Macccabi bested
in the semifinals at last season’s Final Four in Barcelona, Farmar came
through using his speed, shot making ability and ball handling skills
to post big numbers. Read more 
Panathinaikos
remained undefeated in Group B with a strong second half to beat
Zalgiris Kaunas 92-75 at OAKA on Friday night in the last game of Week
3. Reigning Euroleague MVP Dimitris Diamantidis scored 16 points to
pace the winners. The visitors, who played their first game under new
head coach Aleksandar Trifunovic, played well early and led 38-42 at
halftime. But Diamantidis opened the second half with a pair of
three-pointers and later Kostas Kaimakoglou nailed a triple to make it
64-55 at the end of the third quarter. Steven Smith starred in a 10-0
fourth-quarter run that wrapped up the game. Read more 
The
Euroleague Basketball Nike International Junior Tournament, which
crowns the best youth team of the continent each spring, will mark its
10th anniversary at the 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in
Istanbul, Turkey on the second weekend in May. Euroleague Basketball is
proud to announce that four preliminary classification tournaments will
be held across Europe during the winter – in Rome, L'Hospitalet,
Belgrade and, for the first time ever, Kaunas, Lithuania – to determine
qualifiers for the finals in Istanbul. The winners in each of those
cities will reserve the right to play on the biggest stage of all, in
parallel with the 2012 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. The
winning team in Istanbul will become the undisputed European Junior
Club Champion and will represent Europe in the 2012 Nike Global
Challenge. Read more 
Partizan
mt:s downed Belgian champion Belgacom Spirou Charleroi 91-81 in front
of a loud and faithful home crowd at Pionir Arena for its first victory
in this Turkish Airlines Euroleague season. Partizan led for the great
majority of this fast-paced Group C encounter, but could not break the
game open until the final three minutes of the fourth quarter when Acie
Law scored crucial points to secure the home team’s win. Law ended up
being the top scorer in the game with 26 points and he dished out 7
assist as well. Nikola Pekovic scored 21 on 9-of-13 shooting, while
Milan Macvan had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Dragan
Milosavljevic also finished the game in double figures with 14 points.
Read more 
Bennet
Cantu outdueled Bizkaia Bilbao Basket 78-69 to secure sole possession
of second place in Group A. Giorgi Shermadini was the hero with 16
points on 7-of-8 shooting and 6 rebounds for the winners. Cantu won its
second straight home game and now boasts a 2-1 record. Maarten Leunen
added 14 points, Manuchar Markoishvili scored 12 and Andrea Cinciarini
produced 12 points and 6 assists for head coach Andrea Trinchieri.
Cantu led 42-31 at the half, but Bilbao battled back and cut the lead
to 5 in the fourth. Cantu, however, always answered by finding an open
shot through its good ball movement. The hosts also won the battle of
the offensive boards, 9-4. Read more 
The
beautiful city of Bamberg, Germany was witness to a complete Turkish
Airlines Euroleague thriller as Unicaja managed to pull the road win
over Brose Baskets by 78-79. Despite some double-digit leads, the game
was close throughout and the final minutes were heartstopping to say
the least. With 78-77 and 13 seconds to go after a Brian Roberts three,
Kristaps Valters missed his shot but a providential offensive rebound
and jumper by Berni Rodriguez put Unicaja ahead by one point again,
78-79. In the next play, Roberts looked for the basket again but the
ball didn't go in and Unicaja managed to escepe from Freak City with
the win. Now, Unicaja improves its Group B record to 2-1 while Brose
drops to 1-2. Read more 
Maccabi
Electra sent a message that echoed all around the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague by downing previously undefeated Real Madrid 88-82 in front
of a sellout crowd at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv, Israel in Group C on
Wednesday night. Maccabi and Madrid join Anadolu Efes in a three-way
tie atop this group's standings, each with a 2-1 record. Jordan Farmar
led the winners with 27 points on 9-of-11 two-pointers. David Blu and
Sofoklis Schortsanitis each added 16 while Devin Smith had 15 for
Maccabi. Jaycee Carroll led Madrid with 18 points. Felipe Reyes added
15 while Rudy Fernandez had 13 for the guests. Richard Hendrix and
Farmar allowed Maccabi to get a 19-13 margin late in the first quarter.
Read more 
A
convenient 11-0 run at the start of the second period was all that
Fenerbahce Ulker needed to take its first win of the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season at home against SLUC Nancy, 90-86. The guests started
well in the game, but Fenerbahce managed to shut Nico Batum down and
got Thabo Sefolosha and Bojan Bogdanovic on fire. However, in the
second half Nancy regrouped and by the last minutes of the last quarter
it even had solid chances to cmplete a 23-point comeback, but in the
end a free throw by Omer Onan sealed the deal. Now, Fener is 1-2 in
Group A, while Nancy also drops to 1-2 to tie with the Turksih team.
Sefolosha led the winners with 19 points, Onan, James Gist and Oguz
Savas posted 13 apiece Bogdanovic had 11 and Kaya Peker nailed 10. Read
more 
FC
Barcelona Regal stayed undefeated in difficult Group D by thrashing
reigning Eurocup champion Unics 65-93 in Kazan, Russia on Thursday. FCB
Regal ties with Montepaschi Siena atop this group's standings, each
with a 3-0 record. Unics dropped to 1-2 and registered its second
consecutive loss. Erazem Lorbek paced the winners with 24 points on
9-of-11 two-pointers and 2-of-2 triples. Juan Carlos Navarro added 19,
Pete Mickeal had 16 while Marcelinho Huertas got 10 and 8 assists for
Barcelona. Terrell Lyday led Unics with 14 points. Vladimir Veremeenko
added 11 while Kelly McCarty had 10 for the hosts. Lorbek downed
back-to-back three-pointers in a 0-11 run that allowed his team to get
a 9-19 lead late in the first quarter. Read more 
Union
Olimpija Ljubljana used some overdue outside shooting to beat visiting
Asseco Prokom Gdynia of Poland 70-62 at home in Stozice Arena on
Wednesday. It was Olimpija's first victory in Group D, good for a 1-2
record, while Prokom dropped to 0-3 and needs a win soon to keep up its
Top 16 hopes. Olimpija, which made just 4 of 33 three-point tries in
its first two games, saw five different players make 11 of 27 to keep
ahead of Prokom all night. Danny Green was the big gun for Olimpija,
with 23 points that included 5-for-7 shooting from downtown. No more
Olimpija scorers reached double digits, but Robert Rothbart came off
the bench for 9 and 8 rebounds, while Dino Muric and Aleksandar Capin
scored 8 each. Read more 
CSKA
Moscow stayed undefeated in regular season Group B by simply
overwhelming KK Zagreb Croatia Osiguranje 47-89 in Croatia on
Wednesday. CSKA improved to 3-0 and got close to sealing an early Top
16 spot, while Zagreb dropped to 0-3. Nenad Krstic led the winners with
15 points. Andrei Kirilenko added 14, Andrey Vorontsevich had 12 and
Sammy Mejia 10 for CSKA. Krunoslav Simon scored 15 points for Zagreb,
which was without big man Sean May. Mario Kasun added 14 for the hosts.
In two of the biggest keys to this game, CSKA downed 11 of 20
three-pointers (55%) and committed just 8 turnovers. Kirilenko led CSKA
to a 13-22 margin after 10 minutes. Read more 
Montepaschi
Siena led from start to finish as it whipped Galatasaray Medical Park
103-77 on Wednesday to take its Group D record to 3-0. Rimantas
Kaukenas completed a near-perfect shooting night with 24 points and
BoMcCalebb added 19 and 4 assists to lead Montepaschi, which made 10 of
18 three-pointers (55.6%). The hosts raced out to a 14-3 start.
Galatasaray came back and got within 7 in the second half before
Kaukenas, Pietro Aradori and McCalebb put the Italian champs up 50-37
at the half. And any hope of a Galatasaray comeback was dashed by David
Moss, who drilled back-to-back triples early in the second half to take
the lead into the 20+ point range. Read more 
In
arguably one of the best Turkish Airlines Euroleague games so far this
season, Caja Laboral stayed undefeated in Group A by edging Olympiacos
81-79 in Vitoria, Spain on Wednesday night. Pablo Prigioni won the game
for Laboral with the go-ahead jumper with just 1.7 seconds to go.
Laboral went up to 3-0 in Group A while Olympiacos dropped to 1-2.
Mirza Teletovic paced the winners with 20 points. Kevin Seraphin and
Fernando San Emeterio each added 15 for Laboral, but Prigioni stole the
show and set the crowd on fire with his game-winning shot. Vassilis
Spanoulis led Olympiacos with 19 points. Pero Antic and Kyle Hines each
added 14 while Marko Keselj had 10 for the Reds. Read more 
On
the heels of a disappointing 2010-11 Turkish Airlines Euroleague
season, it took CSKA Moscow just two games to prove to everyone that
the team is back on track to fight for its seventh continental title
already this season. After two regular season games, CSKA leads the
competition in assists, is second in scoring and performance index
rating and has registered two clear wins over Zalgiris and Brose
Baskets. One man who has everything to do with CSKA's early-season
resurgence is power forward Andrei Kirilenko, who is Euroleague
Basketball's choice as bwin MVP for October. Kirilenko returned to CSKA
this season after a decade abroad and has made sure nobody has
forgotten about his talent or intensity. Read more 
With
one spectacular play after another, supertalent Nicolas Batum made the
first home game of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague season one to
remember for the home fans in Nancy as the hosts pulled away to their
first victory, 87-73 over Bizkaia Bilbao Basket on Thursday. Batum not
only played nearly the entire game and flirted with a triple-double,
but took over with 11 points in a 15-0 run in the final three minutes.
The final boxscore showed the mercurial small forward to have a
Euroleague career high 26 points – including making 11 of 12 free
throws – plus 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 11 fouls drawn. That
impressive performance left Batum with a performance index rating of
36, which was the most of any player in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague
this week and earned Batum the bwin MVP honor for Week 2 of the regular
season. Read more 
Maccabi Electra Tel
Aviv recorded its first win in Group C by beating Partizan mt:s 70-66
at a packed Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Maccabi was led by the point guard
duo of Theo Papaloukas and Jordan Farmar as they trailed only once in
entire game and had 19-point lead before Partizan closed out the game
with 5-16 run. Papaloukas finished with 13 points and Farmar had 11
along with 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Lior Eliyahu and Guy Pnini also
ended up 10 points each. Dragan Milosavljevic and former Maccabi player
Milan Macvan scored 14 each in losing effort. Macvan also grabbed 5
rebounds. Acie Law finished with 12 points, and Nikola Pekovic had 11
with 8 rebounds for the Serbian champs, who dropped to 0-2. Read more 
FC
Barcelona Regal cruised to an 88-61 victory over Asseco Prokom on
Thursday night in its home opener at Palau Blaugrana. Erazem Lorbek
scored 20 points, Juan Carlos Navarro had 14 and Marcelinho Huertas 11
– with the latter two dishing 5 assists each – to lead the Spanish
champs. Prokom played tough early and led 30-33 midway through the
second quarter, but the hosts roared back behind Navarro to lead 47-36
at the break and were never in trouble again. Barcelona was greatly
aided by its strong team defense, which forced 17 turnovers, and by the
presence of Kosta Perovic inside, who turned it 4 blocked shots. Read
more 
Real
Madrid took the showdown between undefeated teams in Group C by downing
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano 85-78 in front of a sellout crowd of almost
11,000 fans at the Caja Magica in the Spanish capital on Thursday.
Madrid became the only defeated team atop the Group C standings at 2-0
while Milano dropped to 2-2. Jaycee Carroll led the winners with 21
points on 4-of-4 triples. Rudy Fernandez added 17, Segrio Llull had 13
while Marty Pocius got 11 for Madrid. Drew Nicholas led Milano with 24
points. Malik Hairston added 14 while Danilo Gallinari had 12 for the
guests. Milano led for the best part of the game, getting a 14-18 edge
after 10 minutes and keeping a 36-39 margin at halftime. Read more 
The
Group D showdown between two Turkish Airlines Euroleague newcomers on
Thursday was solved in favor of Unics Kazan, who beat Galatasaray
Medical Park on the road by 64-68 after trailing for almost 38 minutes.
Galatasaray dominated the score thanks to Darius Songaila first and
Josh Shipp later. Unics was struggling but when Aleksey Savrasenko and
Lynn Greer were together on court, things started ticking. It wasn't
until the last quarter when Henry Domercant also woke up and Unics got
closer. Two straight threes by Mike Wilkinson and Terrell Lyday with
2:20 to go put theguests ahead for the first time and for good. Read
more 
More
basketball fans than ever before in the United Kingdom will be able to
enjoy the Turkish Airlines Euroleague during the 2011-12 season thanks
to a new agreement between Euroleague Basketball and ESPN UK. The
agreement is the latest and most expansive of a series in which ESPN UK
has procured exclusive rights to broadcast Euroleague games across the
United Kingdom. ESPN UK started broadcasting Euroleague games with the
2010 Final Four. Last season, its coverage expanded to include the Top
16 and the Playoffs. Now, ESPN UK will offer UK basketball fans weekly
coverage of the Euroleague for the first time by showing every Game of
the Week all season long, up through and including the 2012 Turkish
Airlines Final Four in Istanbul next May. Read more 
Belgacom
Spirou worked hard to edge Anadolu Efes 79-80 in a Group C nail-biter
at Abdi Ipekci Sports Hall in Istanbul on Wednesday as clutch shooting
by Justin Hamilton in the final seconds made the difference. Both teams
now have 1-1 records. Efes needed to play catch up after falling behind
10-24 in the first quarter. Caleb Green led the winners with 18 points,
including 4-of-6 shooting from downtown, while Demond Mallet added 14,
Christophe Beghin 13 and Hamilton came through with 12 points and 7
assists. Hamilton rescued the game with a clutch jumper under pressure
with 11 seconds to go, followed by 2 crucial free throws that sealed
the result. Read more 
Caja
Laboral stayed unbeaten in Group A by downing Bennet Cantu 81-69 in
Vitoria, Spain on Wednesday. Laboral moved up to 2-0 to take sole
possession of first place - even when Bizkaia Bilbao Basket can join it
if it beats Sluc Nancy tomorrow. Cantu dropped to 1-1 but its chances
to go to the Top 16 are still intact. Mirza Teletovic had 12 of his 22
points in the fourth quarter. He had all points in an 8-0 run that
allowed Laboral to get full control of for good. Milko Bjelica added
17, Thomas Huertel had 11 while Kevin Seraphin had 10 for the winners.
Vladimir Micov led Cantu with 14 points. Read more 
Reigning
Turkish Airlines Euroleague champion Panathinaikos put on a defensive
display as it routed KK Zagreb 62-81 in the latter’s first ever
Euroleague home game. The Greens started strong and never let up in
bringing their record to 2-0 in Group B. Panathinaikos head coach
Zeljko Obradovic was able to split the minutes among his charges as all
12 players in uniform played a minimum of 10 minutes and all but one of
them scored. Romain Sato led the way with 13 points, Nick Calathes and
Steven Smith tallied 12 apiece, Mike Batiste scored 10 and Euroleague
MVP Dimitris Diamantidis quarterbacked them with 8 assists. Read more 
CSKA
Moscow took the big showdown between undefeated teams in Group B by
downing Brose Baskets 94-74 in the Russian capital on Wednesday. CSKA
went up to 2-0 before playing back-to-back road games in this group.
Brose dropped to 1-1 and faces a critical showdown against Unicaja next
week. Nenad Krstic paced the winners with 19 points on 9-of-9
two-pointers. Andrey Vorontsevich added 13 while Andrei Kirilenko had
12 and 6 assists for CSKA. Tibor Pleiss led Brose with 17 points.
Julius Jenkins added 15 while PJ Tucker had 10 for the guests. An
outstanding Kirilenko and a three-pointer by Vorontsevich helped CSKA
to get a 24-14 lead after 10 minutes. Read more 
During
his visit to Athens earlier in the day, Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu
has confirmed some key changes to Euroleague, starting next season.
Changes include the day of games, the number of games during the season
and the number of teams in the qualifying phase. Euroleague's Top16
phase will be played with two groups, each consisting of eight clubs.
Thus, each club will play eight extra games, fourteen instead of six
before. A Final Four club could potentially play up to 31 games. Second
most significant change is the days during which Euroleague games will
be played. Instead of current Wednesday and Thursday gamedays,
Euroleague will keep Thursday and introduce Friday as the main gameday.
Read more 
The
dynamic new partnership between Euroleague Basketball and bwin.party
digital entertainment was the subject of a presentation ceremony in
Athens on Wednesday with representatives of Greece's most emblematic
Turkish Airlines Euroleague clubs, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, and
Eurocup club PAOK, joining in the fun. Euroleague Basketball and bwin
this year recently announced to a three-year marketing and media rights
agreement for Euroleague events that will run through June of 2014.
Wednesday's ceremony featured comments from Jordi Bertomeu, President
and CEO of Euroleague Basketball, as well as those of Mr. Thomas
Tzokas, the bwin.party Director for Eastern Europe. Read more 
Unicaja
came from behind to force overtime and then rode the hot hand of
Kristaps Valters and the dominance inside of Joel Freeland for an 85-78
victory over Zalgiris Kaunas on Tuesday night at Martin Carpena Arena
in Malaga, Spain. Freeland, who led Unicaja with 21 points and 12
rebounds, scored 7 points in the extra session and Valters, who
finished with 20, nailed 2 clutch three-pointers in overtime to help
steer Unicaja to its first Group B win in its second game. Tremmell
Darden added 10 points for the winners and Berni Rodriguez was also
strong at both ends of the floor, including hitting 2 free throws in
the final minute of regulation time that evened the score at 67-67.
Read more 
One
player's return to his former club to start the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season couldn't have gone better if he had scripted it
himself. Forward Andrei Kirilenko was simply unstoppable as CSKA Moscow
defeated Zalgiris Kaunas 74-87 in Monday's opening game of the season.
Kirilenko's performance index rating of 37 would prove the highest
among all Euroleague players, earning him the bwin MVP honor for
regular season Week 1! Kirilenko played inspired basketball from the
opening tip in Kaunas, en route to an amazing performance that included
17 points on 6 of 10 two-point shots, 1 of 2 threes and 2 of 4 free
throws. Read more 
On
a night to remember for the lucky fans who witnessed it live, Bizkaia
Bilbao Basket handily defeated visiting Olympiacos 76-61 on Friday,
leading from tipoff to buzzer in the city's first-ever game in the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague. An estimated 9,000 fans packed Bilbao
Arena for the occasion, and they raised the roof as their team slowly
but surely pulled away to a debut victory. After a 5-5 in the first
quarter, Bilbao repeatedly pulled ahead by double-digits, calmly
withstanding a couple runs that Olympiacos used to draw within 2 points
before and after halftime. Marco Banic led the winners with 22 points
on near-perfect shooting: 7 for 9 on two-pointers and 8 for 8 from the
foul line. Read more 
Real
Madrid opened the Turkish Airlines Euroleague season in resounding
fashion, cruising to a 76-100 victory against Belgacom Spirou on the
road at the Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium. Madrid increased its
domination with each quarter as the Belgian squad found itself
outmanned inside, often leaving Madrid's shooters open with good looks
outside. Madrid led by 8 points at halftime, 37-45, progressively
widening the lead after that. Felipe Reyes and Rudy Fernandez shared
the scoring honors for Madrid with 19 apiece. Reyes was a model of
efficiency, shooting 77% from the field while leading the team with 9
rebounds. Read more 
Brose
Baskets Bamberg opened their 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season
in convincing fashion with a dominating 96-65 victory at home over KK
Zagreb in Group B. P.J. Tucker led the way with 20 points while Casey
Jacobsen and Marcus Slaughter each added 16 points for the two-time
reigning German champion Brose Baskets, who caused 20 turnovers by
Zagreb. Predrag Suput also had 15 points and Julius Jenkins chipped in
10 points for the host side. Zagreb was playing less than a week after
replacing coach Ivica Buric on October 14 with Vlado Androic. Read more
Turkish
Airlines Euroleague champion Panathinaikos looked none the worse for a
rough training camp when it opened its title defense by thrashing
Unicaja of Spain 98-77 at home in Athens on Thursday. The Greens, who
were missing Stratos Perperoglou and Kostas Tsartsaris due to injury,
showed that their offense is finely tuned and their defense can rise to
any occasion. They turned a 52-49 halftime lead into a blowout by
starting the third and fourth quarters with stifling defense. Reigning
MVP Dimitris Diamantidis led seven Panathinaikos scorers in double
figures with 17 points, 7 assists and 3 steals. Romain Sato followed
with 16 points, Kostas Kaimakoglou and Steven Smith 13 each, Nick
Calathes 12 and Sarunas Jasikevicius 10. Read more 
FC
Barcelona Regal started the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague on the
right foot, for the 11th time out of 12 occasions in season openers,
with a convincing 64-86 road win at Union Olimpija on Thursday night.
Union Olimpija managed to keep up in the first half thanks to rookie
Danny Green's points, but in the second half, the combined effort of
the guests led by Marcelinho Huertas broke the game open for good.
Barca therefore startes its Group D journey with a 1-0 record while
Olimpija will have to get to next week with a 0-1. Huertas led the
winners with his 17 points, Pete Mickeal added 15 in his comeback sine
November 2010, and Fran Vazquez posted 10. Read more 
Anadolu
Efes started the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season in style by
downing Partizan mt:s 73-84 in Belgrade, Serbia in Group C on Thursday.
Efes overcame a strong basketball atmosphere at Pionir Arena to
register its first road win and improve its chances to get to the Top
16 in difficult Group C. Tarence Kinsey led the winners with 18 points.
Dusko Savanovic added 17, Sasha Vujacic had 14 while Ersan Ilyasova got
10 for Efes. Nikola Pekovic led Partizan with 21 points in less than 20
minutes. Milan Macvan added 14 while Dragan Milosavljevic had 10 for
the hosts. An unstoppable Pekovic led Partizan to a 28-27 lead after 10
minutes. Back-to-back three-pointers by Milosavljevic soon boosted the
hosts' lead to 40-33 late in the second quarter. Read more 
Bennet
Cantu celebrated its long-awaited return to the Turkish Airlines
Euroleague with an 80-69 victory over SLUC Nancy on Wednesday. Andrea
Cinciarini led the winners with 15 points on near-perfect shooting, but
it was Cantu’s defense that was the story of the game. The hosts jumped
ahead by holding Nancy to just 8 third-quarter points. And when Nancy
started to push to come back, the aggressive Cantu defense resulted in
several knocked passes and steals that limited the visitors’
effectiveness. Clever passing and big shots down the stretch allowed
Cantu to win its first game in Europe’s premier basketball competition
since 1994. Vladimir Micov added 14 points and Marko Scekic came off
the bench for 11 to help head coach Andrea Trinchieri’s side. Read more
Galatasaray
Medical Park registered its first-ever Turkish Airlines Euroleague win
by holding off a wild fourth-quarter rally to stop Asseco Prokom 72-76
in Gydnia, Poland in Group D on Wednesday night. Jaka Lakovic led the
winners with 21 points on 6-of-7 triples and 4 assists. Preston
Shumpert added 12 points while Luksa Andric had 11 for Galatasaray.
Adam Hrycaniuk and Donatas Motiejunas led Prokom with 15 points apiece.
Oliver Lafayette added 12 while Alonzo Gee had 10 and 9 rebounds for
the hosts, that used a 10-0 run which bridged between the opening two
quarters to get a 23-21 lead. An outstanding Motiejunas helped Prokom
to extend its margin to 37-32 at halftime. Read more 
Caja
Laboral picked up a crucial 66-69 opening night road win over
Fenerbahce Ulker at Abdi Ipekci Arena in Istanbul as Mirza Teletovic
scored 23 and Pablo Prigioni controlled the backcourt with 7 assists
and 6 steals. It was a thrilling finish as both teams held slim leads
in the closing minutes and the hosts had the last possession with a
chance to tie, but Omer Onan missed from downtown. Teletovic featured a
few slams and 3 triples in his arsenal to lead the winners. Milko
Bjelica added 12 points for Laboral and Kevin Seraphin netted 10 plus 6
rebounds in 15 minutes in his Turkish Airlines Euroleague debut. Onan
finished with 16 to pace FB Ulker and Roko Ukic and James Gist added 10
apiece. Read more 
Montepaschi
Siena had a strong start in Turkish Airlines Euroleague's Group D by
rallying from a double-digit deficit to top Unics 71-79 in Kazan,
Russia on Wednesday night. Montepaschi grabbed its first road win right
away and Unics could not please its fans with a win in their team's
Turkish Airlines Euroleague debut. Bo McCalebb paced the winners with
17 points. Rimantas Kaukenas added 14 while David Andersen had 13 for
Montepaschi. Henry Domercant led Unics with a Euroleague career-high 30
points. Nathan Jawai added 11 for the hosts. Kelly McCarty, Domercant
and free throws by Terrell Lyday allowed Unics to get a 24-20 lead
after 10 minutes. Read more 
CSKA
Moscow never trailed as it unveiled its new roster and shined bright en
route to an impressive 74-87 victory over Zalgiris Kaunas in the
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Opening Game Monday at Zalgirio Arena. In
his first Euroleague action in a decade, Andrei Kirilenko teamed with
former Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic to pepper the opening game record
book, while Alexey Shved came through with a Euroleague career-high 19
points. Kirilenko finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 4
blocks to set a new standard for performance index rating in the
opening game with 37. He also now has the second most rebounds and
blocks in opening game history. Read more 
A
sense of history and tradition were present at a press conference on
Monday prior to the opening game of the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines
Euroleague season in Kaunas, Lithuania. As the press and basketball
While Zalgiris and CSKA warmed up for the first tipoff of the new
season, the dignitaries on hand met the press for an event that also
saluted a competition legend and gave him the chance to say goodbye.
Marcus Brown, who retired last week as the Euroleague's all-time top
scorer, joined Euroleague Basketball President & CEO Jordi
Bertomeu, Zalgiris president and basketball legend Arvydas Sabonis,
Zalgiris owner Vladimir Romanov and Mayor of Kaunas Rimantas Mikaitis
to open a new Euroleague season and to celebrate the career of one of
the best American players in European basketball history. Read more 
Zalgiris
and CSKA will play opening game of 2011/2012 Euroleague season. The
most of fans, coaches and people from Basketball world expects that
this season will be the most interesting until now. One of the reasons
is definitely that many players from NBA came to Europe and they will
stay here and play as long as Lock-out lasts. In many media sources
around the world they call this competition "European NBA".
