Bennet Cantu produced the shock of the Euroleague so far by downing Greek giants Olympiacos 64-63 in-front of a capacity crowd at the Pala Desio.
Maarten Leunen led Bennet Cantu’s scoring with 12 as the Italian side improve to 3-1 in the competition with all victories coming from home.
A free-throw from Giorgi Shermadini secured the victory, Kyle Hines raced down the court, but missed the game-winning lay-up to the delight of the Cantu crowd.
Vassilis Spanoulis led all scorers on the night with 23 points, but this was a night that the Greeks would like to forget.
“A great win, in a real Euroleague game – very tough, with a lot of contact,” Bennet Cantu coach Andrea Trinchieri said afterwards.
“To hold Olympiacos to 60 points gives us great confidence for future games. We also need to win at home because doing it away will be very difficult.”
It was a happy homecoming for Jaka Lakovic, despite a low-key performance from him. His Galatasaray side beat Union Olimpija 79-70 in Ljubljana.
Lakovic was the center of attention but it was a 20-year-old making his first start in the Euroleague that stole the headlines as Furkan Aldemir led the victors with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
“The game was decided in the last five minutes,” Lakovic said. “We chose well our shots in the decisive possessions and we played under control.
Elsewhere, Fenerbahce sneaked a 73-70 victory over Bizkaia Bilbao. Emir Preldzic and Omer Onan scored all the points during a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter that sealed Bilbao’s fate at 71-67.
Bojan Bogdanovic led the victors with 19 points overall.
There were also wins for Unics Kazan, as they defeated Asseco Prokom 72-68 behind 23 points from Henry Domercant and Unicaja Malaga defeated KK Zagreb 99-85 with Luka Zoric leading the way with 14 points.
