Olympiacos continued their good form at home in the Euroleague with an 83-65 against Anadolu Efes.
The win puts the Greeks on a 1-2 record and at the same time, keeps their hopes of a last-eight place alive. They have only lost once in seven encounters at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
The game was tight going into the final quarter, tied at 53. But the hosts upped a gear and blitzed Anadolu from the get-go with a 24-5 run to seal victory. Vassilis Spanoulis led Olympiacos to victory with 18 points with Kostas Sloukas hitting 15.
Anadolu Efes, who slump to 1-2 themselves were led by Stanko Barac’s 14 points and eight rebounds.
“It was a must-win situation, a do-or-die game for us,” Spanoulis explained. “We played the right way and despite the surprising box-and-one defence used by our opponents, we had the right reaction. We executed the systems and played good defense.”
Elsewhere, Real Madrid defeated Gescrap Bilbao in an all-ACB clash 89-73 to improve to 2-1.
Madrid led 26-16 after the first quarter and never looked back as they were reasonably comfortable against the visitors from Bilbao.
Sergio Rodriguez led all scorers for Real with 20 points while Marko Banic hit 18 points for Bilbao, who drop to 1-2.
“I want to point out the hard, steady work of my team tonight,” Real Madrid coach Pablo Saso said. “Every time we felt good on the court, we managed to dominate the game.”
It wasn’t the prettiest of encounters, but Unics Kazan enter the half-way point of the Euroleague Top 16 unbeaten on 3-0 following a 59-44 win over EA7 Milano who need to win their next three games to have any chance of qualifying for the last-eight.
Henry Domercant led the Russians with 16 points while Nicolo Melli was the only Milano player to reach double-figures, as he led all scorers with 17.
