Zalgiris claimed only its second road win of the EuroLeague season after they defeated Anadolu Efes 84-71 in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Kevin Pangos led the winners with 15 points on 5/6 three-point shooting as the Lithuanian side raced clear in the second quarter, taking a 44-30 lead and never looking back. They improve to 5-8 while Anadolu drop to 6-7.
“I think we played very solid,” said Zalgiris coach Sarunas Jasikevicius. “I think we struggled at moments against their pressure but, in general, I think we risked what we wanted to risk; sometimes we get lucky, sometimes we don’t.
“We were the most aggressive team tonight. Playing against such an athletic team, it is most important to handle the pressure. Our guards were having problems [early in the game], but this is Efes’s quality; they are athletic, long and disturb you a lot. It is very important to prepare everything well and most of the game, we were doing it.”
Thomas Heurtel led Efes with 18 points.
Unics Kazan were without the EuroLeague’s leading scorer Keith Langford, but had Evgeny Voronov on board as his career night helped Kazan to a 73-60 win over Galatasaray.
Voronov poured in a career-best 22 points with a mere two missed shots in his first start of the season in place of the injured Keith Langford and Quino Colom added 17 points for the winners.
“It was important to start well and we played without our leader, Keith Langford,” Voronov said. “Thanks to good defence we won tonight.”
Real Madrid needed just three minutes in the first quarter to establish a double-digit lead en route to a 95-72 win over Brose Bamberg in the Spanish capital.
Teenager Luka Doncic led the way for the hosts with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists, while backcourt partner Sergio Llull added 14 points and six assists as they led 24-9 after the first quarter and never relinquished their advantage.
“We worked well from the beginning,” Real Madrid coach Pablo Laso said. “We were solid from the defensive point of view, and controlling the rebounds allowed us to play at our pace against a team which does that quite well.”
Lucca Staiger hit 18 for Bamberg, who were without last week’s MVP Fabien Causeur through illness.
Olympiacos extended its winning streak to four games after they eased past Crvena Zvezda 73-65 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
The Reds improved to a league second-best 9-4 record, while Red Star dropped to 5-8 on the season.
The hosts took the lead for good early in the first quarter and then three consecutive triples from Matt Lojeski made Olympiacos pull away to a double-digit margin in the second quarter and never looked back.
Lojeski led Olympiacos with 18 points on 4/6 three-point shooting.
