Home EuroLeague Red Star join Olympiacos and roar into the Top 16, Euroleague round...

Red Star join Olympiacos and roar into the Top 16, Euroleague round up

Red Star Belgrade advanced to the Euroleague Top 16 for the first time after they beat Valencia 77-68 in Group D.

The Serbian side raised its record to 5-3 in the group, enough for qualification, while Valencia drops to 2-6.

Boban Marjanovic led Red Star with 18 points and 11 rebounds with Marcus Williams hitting five three-pointers en route to 17 points.

“We have a pretty young team but came here knowing what was at stake, so we tried to get a win and secure the Top 16,” Williams said afterwards. “We went out here to play and our fans helped us a lot. It has been a good season for us so far, but we are not finished, we want to keep going.”

Bojan Dubljevic led Valencia with a game-high 22 points. The Liga Endesa side are still mathematically in the Euroleague, but with a 2-6 record, will need results around the group to go their way.

Olympiacos defeated Neptunas 89-79 in Piraeus as the Lithuanian side’s dreams of advancing to the next stage took a tumble. Olympiacos’ qualification from Group D though was confirmed back in week six.

Brent Petway led the Reds with 20 points as the 2012 and 2013 champions always looked in control, forcing 16 turnovers from Neptunas but despite his 20-point haul Petway admitted that his side have a few things to work on.

“Victory is what it counts more and we keep it, but from the other side, I am upset because we missed a lot of defensive boards and we allowed our opponents to have points from second chances,” he said.

The third Group D contest saw Laboral Kutxa edged Galatasaray 89-82 in a back-and-forth battle in Istanbul.

Doron Perkins scored the final 9 points for the visitors, beginning with a big three-pointer which seemed to be the telling blow despite Galatasaray adding a field goal after that.

Fernando San Emeterio was outstanding for Laboral Kutxa, leading them with 25 points, but it was Perkins who handed them the win overall with his fourth quarter heroics. The Vitoria side move to 4-4, while the Turkish giants, paced by Carlos Arroyo’s 22 drop to 3-5.

CSKA Moscow eased to a 97-79 win at home to Cedevita Zagreb in Group B. The Russians now move to 8-0 in the pool.

The Croatian side are now 2-6 but are still mathematically still in with a shot of the Top 16.

Sonny Weems and Nando De Colo led a balanced CSKA scoring attack with 14 points each. Six CSKA players recorded double figures for scoring in the easy win.

“I think we were focused from the beginning of the game, we played very good in the first half, we tried to play defence together and stop their aggressiveness,” De Colo said. “So on offence we needed to control everything and move the ball. They can play basketball very good, so they came back in the game a little bit. But we were focused, it helped us.”

Fran Pilepic led all scorers with 23 points for the visitors including five three’s in that haul.

Already qualified Barcelona thrashed PGE Turow 104-65 on the road in Group C as the Spanish champions continue their unbeaten run at 8-0, while eliminated Turow drop to 1-7.

Bostjan Nachbar led Barca with 17 points.

Exit mobile version