Galatasaray dished out 25 assists as they stunned Barcelona 78-64 to claim their third straight home victory in the EuroLeague season on Friday night.
A 10-2 run at the start of the third quarter created breathing room between Galatasaray and their Catalan opponents as the Istanbul-based side secured a third straight home success.
“We had a great game tonight, especially defensively,” said Galatasaray coach Ergin Ataman.
“We worked very hard. On offence we played very smart; we always used our best attack. We did not make a turnover in the second half. And in the first half we also could have made this difference, but we made turnovers on fast breaks. We found a way to play a good defence with Tibor Pleiss and Emir Preldzic. We used switching man-to-man. And on offence we moved the ball very well tonight.
“I think Barcelona is not in their time. They lost three in a row, and we used it. Now we will fight in the EuroLeague until the end.
Sinan Guler paced the winners with 18 points.
Reigning EuroLeague champions CSKA Moscow overcame a torrid first quarter to thrash Baskonia 112-84 in the Russian capital.
Baskonia jumped to a 27-17 lead after the first quarter but helped by Milos Teodosic and Vitaly Fridzon, CSKA chipped away at the deficit before a 7-0 run handed the hosts a 38-36 lead midway through the second.
From there, the Muscovites gradually pulled away from Baskonia, as they improve to 8-1, while the Liga Endesa side drop to 5-4.
The night proved to be a career one for Teodosic, who led CSKA with 34 points and 10 assists, as he reached 1000 career assists – without the Serb realising.
“I did not know I passed 1000-assist mark in my career,” he said. It is a good feeling, but most important thing is that we won and we beat one very good team.
I was scared before the game because I knew Baskonia plays tough and is a very good basketball team. We played good as a team and that is a reason we won tonight.”
Panathinaikos got back to winning ways as they held off visiting Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul 86-80 at Olympic Sports Center Athens.
Both teams now hold 5-4 records. Panathinaikos led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter, but Will Clyburn led Darussafaka’s rally and his long jumper gave the visitors their only lead of the second half, 77-76.
But Ioannis Bourousis, Nick Calathes and Chris Singleton made plays down the stretch as Panathinaikos prevailed.
Bourousis finished with 18 points, including a put-back with 11.6 seconds to go and then two free throws in the final seconds that sealed the deal.
