Home EuroLeague Dario Saric to the rescue, Euroleague Top 16 hangover

Dario Saric to the rescue, Euroleague Top 16 hangover

Anadolu Efes edged Crvena Zvezda 85-84 in the first round of Euroleague Top 16 games in Group E.

Dario Saric hit along the baseline with three seconds left to give the Istanbul side the win when for the majority, it looked like Red Star would indeed begin their Top 16 campaign with a victory.

Bryant Dunston paced Anadolu with 21 points on 7/8 two-point shooting.

“I am just trying to bring energy every time I am out there, Dunston said. “It was tough in the first half, they scored too much.

“Once we changed our defence and figured out what they wanted to do, we were able to stop them a little bit and luckily, we made some shots in the end.”

Fenerbahce got off to a winning start in Group E as they defeated Panathinaikos 82-75.

Ekpe Udoh led Fenerbahce with 16 points as they raced out to an early 28-18 lead and never looked back.

James Gist and Miroslav Raduljica led the Greens with 14 points each.

Malcolm Delaney inspired Lokomotiv Kuban to an 89-75 road win over Cedevita Zagreb in the other Group E game.

Delaney led all scorers with 31 points, and an index rating of +41.

“In the first half we didn’t play defence like we usually do, but we were better in the second one,” Delaney said. “I felt good today and I was aggressive right from the start.”

In Group F, and current Euroleague champions Real Madrid came back from a double-digit deficit to beat Brose Baskets 82-79.

Sergio Rodriguez led Real with 22 points as the holders came back from a 40-30 half-time gap to grab the win.

The other Group F game saw Laboral Kutxa comfortably see-off Zalgiris 89-68 in Kaunas.

Darius Adams led Baskonia with 16 points.

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