Panathinaikos edged Euroleague champions Olympiacos 66-62 in an intense Athens derby in the Euroleague Top 16.

Stephane Lasme led the Greens with 18 points as they got the better of their bitter rivals in a game where the biggest lead for either side was four points. With this win, Panathinaikos move level with Olympiacos in second place on 4-3 records in Group E.

“We played a difficult game against a fresher team and the proof of that is that they dominated under the boards,” Panathinaikos coach Argiris Pedoulakis said “We used our weapon, which is the team-based defence and played smart at the end to win it. I want to make clear that we don’t call our defence a mind game and we respect all opponents.”

Strators Perperoglou led Olympiacos with 12 points.

Two more games were played in the group with Barcelona improving to 7-0 after they defeated fellow Liga Endesa side Laboral Kutxa 80-68.

Ante Tomic led the Catalan side with 24 points and 9 rebounds as he amassed an index rating of +36, a career high for him.

Spanish international Ferando San Emeterio paced the hosts with 22 but it wasn’t enough as Laboral Kutxa drop to 1-6 in Group E.

EA7 Milano beat Unicaja Malaga 70-59 in the fashion capital as they joined the two Greek side Panathinaikos and Olympiacos into second place.

Keith Langford led Milano with a game-high 29 points in what was a comfortable win.

The lone Group F game saw Galatasaray beat Partizan 78-70 in the Serbian capital.

Veteran Henry Domercant led the Istanbul side with 18 points as they move to 3-4, while dropping Partizan to 1-6, despite 23 points from Bogdan Bogdanovic and a 15-point, 15-rebound effort from Joffrey Lauvergne.

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