Barcelona and ALBA Berlin went the distance at the Palau Blaugrana, but it was the Liga Endesa champions that prevailed 92-82 after a session of overtime in their Euroleague Top 16, Group E clash.
Justin Doellman led the winners with 17 points but they didn’t have everything all their way, as ALBA, who were missing duo Jamel McLean and Cliff Hammonds took the game to Barca and forced overtime thanks to a messy possession that was eventually finished off by Leon Radosevic with 2.6 seconds left.
Barcelona though held firm in overtime, and thanks to Czech Republic star Tomas Satoransky and veteran Juan Carlos Navarro, they raced past ALBA to go 5-3 in Group E and at present, are two wins clear of their counterparts, who drop to 3-5.
“ALBA rallied in the fourth quarter; they scored 31 points in the final 10 minutes and until then, we had read the game really well,” Navarro said.
“ALBA is a physical team that never leaves the game. We knew it could be a tough game, but read it well until the fourth quarter. Fortunately, we bounced back in overtime.”
Reggie Redding led all scorers for ALBA with 20 points.
In Group F, Fenerbahce stunned CSKA Moscow in the Russian capital 91-85 as the Turkish side inflicted a first home loss of the season on Dimitris Itoudis’ men.
Fenerbahce also crashed the homecoming party of the returning Andrei Kirilenko, who was eased into the line-up with 5 minutes of playing time.
In the end, Fenerbahce moved level with CSKA in the standings with 6-2 records.
“It was a tough game. CSKA is the best team in Europe, so it was hard to play against them many times,” said Jan Vesely, who paced Fenerbahce with 14 points.
“I think we did a great job fighting under both baskets, and we got the win, so everyone is happy. Everybody is just trying to do our jobs and fight for the win. This is a team win.”
CSKA’s bad night was highlighted with a minute left when Milos Teodosic was ejected for heavily protesting a call, which resulted in him putting his hands on an official. He was quickly pulled away by team-mate Sonny Weems.
Nando De Colo led CSKA with 18.
There was another surprise in store for another Turkish team, but unfortunately for Anadolu Efes, they lost out 87-84 to Laboral Kutxa, who claimed their first road win of the Top 16.
Despite the loss though, Anadolu holds the tiebreaker, as they won by five points in Spain earlier in the round. Both teams hold 4-4 records in Group F.
Fernando San Emeterio scored 22 points and Colton Iverson posted 17 points and 11 rebounds to pace the winners.
Dario Saric scored 18 to lead Efes, Thomas Heurtel, against his old club, added 17.
Olympiacos now have sole ownership of top spot in Group F after they beat Unicaja Malaga 77-72 to mark its 500th European game, dating back to 1960.
The Reds improve to 7-1 as they marched to their 13th straight home win in the Euroleague.
Vassilis Spanoulis finished with 18 points and 10 assists for the winners, while Unicaja Malaga were paced by Jayson Granger’s 13 points, but despite his efforts, the Liga Endesa leaders drop to 1-7.
