EuroLeague champions CSKA Moscow remained perfect after six games by beating Real Madrid 91-90 in the Russian capital.
And the holders 6-0 record was clearly evident in a scintillating display of team basketball. The Liga Endesa side though more than held their own in a game that lived up to the ‘EuroLeague giants’ tag.
“It wasn’t an easy game; we knew it before the start,” said CSKA Moscow’s Nando De Colo, who had a game-high 28.
“We had a sloppy start, but got back in the game. The win is the most important thing. I think we could have won the game way before, but that’s it. Real Madrid has a great team and we need to stay focused on our job and keep working.”
Real Madrid fall to their second defeat in six EuroLeague matches.
Galatasaray scored their first win of the EuroLeague season after a thrilling 89-87 win over Olympiacos at the Abdi Ipecki Arena.
Alex Tyus proved to be the hero for the Istanbul side as he blocked what could have been a game-winning three-pointer from Olympiacos’ Georgios Printezis with two ticks left. The ball then went out of bounds with the time expired.
It’s a deserved reward for Galatasaray who claim their first win at the sixth time of asking.
“It feels good,” said Justin Dentmon who paced the winners with 22 points.
“Now it is time for us to get rolling. We have to take this into our next game. I was sad when Micov missed the free throws, but we made up, so I was happy. I was just able to help my team on the court and off the court. It is just a great win for our fans against a great team. It was an amazing win. You have to give credit to everybody.”
Olympiacos fall to 3-3 after six games.
Baskonia gained revenge for their loss to Fenerbahce in last season’s Final Four by easily beating them 86-52 in Vitoria.
Shane Larkin, Andrea Bargnani and Johannes Voightmann all led Baskonia with 13 points as the Liga Endesa side took advantage of a woeful Fenerbahce side where no player reached double figures in scoring with Gigi Datome and Jan Vesely were held to two points each.
“We came into the game with right mentality,” Bargnani said. “We all know what kind of team Fenerbahce is, clearly one of the best in EuroLeague. We came prepared. We knew we had to play very hard just to compete with them. We played hard, and it worked out. We made a lot of shots. We are happy with the result. I felt pretty good on the court.”
