Real Madrid outlasted AS Monaco Basket 84-90 in a classic EuroLeague double OT game. Monaco had the chance to take a huge win in the regulation as Mike James and co. took a six point lead (66-60) with two minutes left. However, Real battled back to force overtime, which again couldn’t split the two teams until the ‘Whites’ finally controlled the second extra period.
Guerschon Yabusele led the winning side with 18 and 10 rebounds, while Vincent Poirier also had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Thomas Heurtel followed them with 10 points and nine assists. Â Monaco’s Dwayne Bacon and Alpha Diallo led the scoring with 19 points each. Madrid improved to 18-3 and sits top of the standings after the end of Round 23, while Monaco dropped to 10-12 just outside the playoffs.
CSKA Moscow returned to winning ways after a great performance against fellow Russian club UNICS Kazan (75-86). Alexey Shved led CSKA with 27 points with the superstar guard taking over in the second half to led the ‘Army team’ to a double digit lead (40-50) after the break. UNICS climbed back within 66-67 in the fourth quarter but Shved and Will Clyburn took over in crunch time to lead CSKA to an important victory.
Clyburn had 16 points, while Milutinov added 17 for the visitors, who improved to 13-8 in the standings while UNICS dropped to 12-9 suffering its second consecutive loss in the EuroLeague.
In a highly competitive game, Bayern Munich prevailed with 62-56 against ALBA Berlin in the German derby. Bayern improved to 11-11 and moved into eighth place, while ALBA dropped to 6-15 and is on a four-game losing streak. Vladimir Lucic led the winners with 19 points. Jaleen Smith and Maodo Lo paced ALBA with 13 points each.
The Berliners took a 10-point (31-41) lead midway through the third quarter thanks to an 1-17 run. Corey Walden and Andreas Obst helped the hosts return to the game cutting the lead to three (41-44) after 30 minutes. Maodo Lo turned the game into a thriller with less than two minutes remainin (53-52) but Zan Sisko and Vladimire Lucic stepped up big in crunch time to lead Bayern to an important win.
Armani Milan was able to remain in its winning path as Etore Messina group down Zalgiris Kaunas 65-58 on Friday night. The win improved Milan to 14-7 sitting in third place in the standings, while Zalgiris dropped to 3-16, remaining the team with the worst record this season. Devon Hall and Troy Daniels scored 12 points apiece, and Sergio Rodriguez had 10 points in victory for Milan.
Panathinaikos snapped a five-game losing streak taking over early against Baskonia to cruise to a comfortable 75-63 win in Athens. Nemanja Nedovic led the way with 20 points, while Jeremy Evans scored 14 points and Okaro White chipped in 12 points in helping the Greek giants improve to 5-15. Baskonia dropped to 7-14 adding its third consecutive loss to its record.
