Fenerbahce secured a sixth road win in a row after a hard fought 68-60 win over Unicaja Malaga in Group F of the Euroleague Top 16.
Fenerbahce improves to 3-2 with this win, as they look to end their Top 16 jinx and advance to the last eight. And despite sitting top of the Liga Endesa standings, Unicaja can’t seem to catch a break in the Top 16 as they fall even deeper into trouble at 0-5. This is also their tenth straight Euroleague loss.
Andrew Goudelock scored 10 of his 20 points in the key third quarter, which the visitors finished on a 10-1 run to build the biggest lead of the night at 49-40. Unicaja rallied within a single point behind Jayson Granger and Carlos Suarez, but Jan Vesely and Nemanja Bjelica dominated the paint and scored clutch baskets, helping Fenerbahce hold on. Vesely collected 17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 3 steals.
“It is very important to win this type of games,” Goudelock said. “Every win we get is another step for us towards the next round. We wanted to come in here and fight.
“They are a good offensive rebounding team, they play really hard. I think we did a good job in the second half. They only scored 60 points, and that’s how we want to play defence. We didn’t get a significant difference on the scoreboard, but we moved the ball well and we have been patient.”
Iceland international Jon Steffansson paced Malaga with 13 points.
Panathinaikos produced three dominant quarters on their way to beating Galatasaray 86-77 in Athens in Group E.
Dimitris Diamantidis led the Greens with 14 points and 6 assists as the hosts raced out to a 42-27 lead at half-time and piled on the pressure on their Turkish counterparts and bettered their position on the group to 3-2.
Galatasaray drop to 2-3. Vladimir Micov had 16 points to lead.
Barcelona had no trouble in beating Zalgiris 89-72 in the other Group E encounter as they improve to 3-2 themselves.
There was an impressive display from Ante Tomic as he led Barca with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Bostjan Nachbar added 15 points as the hosts raced out to an 18-2 run in the first quarter to lead 29-13 and they never looked back.
Arturas Gudaitis paced Zalgiris with 17 points as they fall to 1-4. Before the game, Zalgiris assistant and former Barcelona player, Sarunas Jasikevicius was honored in a brief pre-game ceremony. Juan Carlos Navarro, the Euroleague’s all-time top scorer, handed him a jersey with his name and number – Jasikevicius, #13 – signed by the current Barcelona squad. Jasikevicius helped Barcelona win its first Euroleague title in 2003.
