Lietuvos Rytas scored a thrilling 84-83 overtime win over Panathinaikos in Vilnius as they got their Euroleague campaign off to a winning start in Group D.
Dimitris Diamantidis sank a three-pointer for the Greens with 18 seconds left to force overtime at 74-74 and after a closely-fought extra session, Renaldas Seibutis sank a jump shot with 5.5 seconds left on the clock to hand the Lithuanian side the victory.
Seibutis led his side with 19 points, including going 4-for-4 from three-point land.
“Emotionally it was a game worth dying for,” Seibutis said. “We kept fighting from the first to the last minute. We had to fight for every point 100 percent. Such a great team as Panathinaikos does not forgive mistakes. We didn’t give up during overtime. The guys concentrated and gave their hearts.”
Jonas Maciulis led Panathinaikos with 13 points in a losing effort.
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Elsewhere Lokomotiv Kuban got their first win of the new season on road to Red Star Belgrade, winning 87-84.
Marcus Williams led all scorers with 23 points as he kept his composure at the free throw line at the end to hand the Serbs a loss.
Blake Schlib led Red Star with 17.
Laboral Kutxa earned an 84-80 win at home to Maccabi Tel Aviv at home.
Lamont Hamilton’s 15 points led the Liga Endesa side to the win. Ricky Hickman led all scorers with 20 for the Israelis.
Zelijko Obradovic began life in the Euroleague as Fenerbahce coach with a comfortable 102-84 win in the Ukraine over Budivielnik Kiev in Group A.
Bojan Bogdanovic led the winners with 21 points as the Turkish side finally took control in the third and fourth quarter, after trailing 43-41 at the half. Fenerbahce held Kiev to seven points in the last period while scoring 31 themselves.
“Of course, we changed our game in the fourth quarter,” Obradovic said. “We stopped them from making difficult shots. Our opponents also played a good game, aside from the last quarter.”
Darjus Lavrinovic had 21 points for Budivielnik.
Barcelona edged Partizan at home 67-60, but, like their performance domestically last week, were not too convincing.
Kostas Papanikolaou and Ante Tomic both had 13 points for the Catalan side but they held firm as Partizan were threatening late on.
Marcelinho Huertas hit 10 points and dished out 10 assists for Barca, while Dragan Milosavjevic led Partizan with a game-high 15 points.
CSKA Moscow were not convincing either, but like Barcelona, managed to win on the road 62-59 against a determined Nanterre side.
Sasha Kaun led the Russian champions with 16 points and nine rebounds. Will Daniels had 18 points for the French champions.
Scotty Hopson and Dusko Savanovic starred for Anadolu Efes as they saw-off EA7 Milano 87-67 in Istanbul.
Hopson and Savanovic both had 22 points as the Turkish side won all four quarters for the easy win.
Keith Langford had 20 for Milano.
