Panathinaikos needed overtime but ultimately sealed an 83-75 win over Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv to improve to 4-2 in the EuroLeague.
Chris Singleton had a career-high 26 points and he also pulled down six rebounds for Panathinaikos as they led for the majority of the game but were pegged back by a determined Maccabi side, who went on a 15-0 surge, handing them the lead late on.
James Gist though scored with ten seconds left to force overtime and from there, the Greek side outscored their Israeli counterparts 16-8 to secure the win.
“We are very happy with this win, it was a tough game and we played more or less good on defence for 40 minutes, only mistakes in transition defence,” said Panathinaikos coach Xavi Pascual. “On offence sometimes we played good but we need to improve quickly, because next week will be very difficult.
“It’s important to win games like this because we don’t have many days to practice, so we have to grow and improve within the games and that means we have some discontinuity as a team.”
Sonny Weems led the Maccabi attack with 15 points but they drop to 2-4.
A three-pointer from Keith Langford with 17 seconds left gave Unics Kazan its second straight victory of the EuroLeague season as they edged Crvena Zvezda 65-62 in Russia.
The Serbian visitors had a chance to salvage something, but Charles Jenkins missed a one-handed floater allowing Marko Banic to seal Unics’s first first home win of the EuroLeague season with free throws.
Both sides own 2-4 records following this game.
“Coming into the game, we knew that it was going to be difficult,” said Langford, who hit 23 points.
“We know that these guys are tough and they controlled the tempo of the game. They are a very good defensive team and the thing that I tried to focus on is continuing to be aggressive throughout the game.”
Brad Wanamaker put his former team to the sword with the game-winning score in the final 32 seconds as Darussafaka Dogus finally got their first home win of the EuroLeague season with a 72-70 win over Brose Baskets.
Nicolo Melli had the chance to force overtime but his off-balance jumper missed its mark, as Bamberg drop to 2-4, while Darussafaka Dogus improve to 4-2.
Will Clyburn led the home team attack with 17 points.
Barcelona needed strong showings from Tyrese Rice and Petteri Koponen to get a 92-86 win over a stubborn Zalgiris side.
Rice tallied 20 points with Koponen adding 16 as Barca improved to 4-2, while the Lithuanian champions dropped to 1-5.
“We definitely knew that it was going to be a tough game,” Rice said. “Zalgiris plays hard in any situation and any day. They have a coach that demands them to give everything they have. They respect him, obviously, and show it on the court. I think we came out flat in the beginning of the game and they took advantage on a lot of things.
“They scored 86 points in our home court. We are maybe one of the best two defensive teams in the EuroLeague all year, and maybe in all of Europe all year. To give up 86 points is not really acceptable. They are an aggressive team and I tried to put myself in situations to draw some fouls, get to the line, maybe get some easy baskets because it wasn’t easy to score. We scored 92 points, but it was still difficult, they were still very physical out there. That is what we expected.”
EA7 Milano snapped their three-game losing streak in the EuroLeague season as they eased past Anadolu Efes 105-92 at the Mediolanum Forum.
Rakim Sanders powered in 22 points to lead Milano, who improve to 3-3 as they post a club record amount of points in the victory.
Anadolu Efes drops to 2-4.
