Bayern Munich came from behind to beat Lokomotiv Kuban 82-79 to give themselves hope of progressing from Group F of the Euroleague Top 16.
Down 30-14 after the first quarter, and behind by as many as 19 in the game, the Bundesliga side looked lost all together at both ends of the court as they fell behind 50-40 at the half.
But Bayern came back into the game and a 10-0 run in the third brought the hosts back to within two points. Kuban came back as the game went on, but Malcolm Delaney and Heiko Schaffartzik stepped up for Munich to get the win, which puts both Bayern and Kuban on 3-4 records.
“Our performance in the first ten minutes was outrageous; I am disappointed. We must not allow that to happen,” Bayern coach Svetislav Pesic said. “We showed no intensity or concentration. I told the team at half-time that it is their decision whether to continue playing so and to lose the or to fight to win the game.
“Our opponents scored 30 points and had 9 assists in the first quarter. Throughout the second half, there had only 29 points and 2 assists. I believe that explains everything.”
Delaney led Bayern with 18 points, going 10/10 from the foul line. Bryce Taylor added 14 for the German side. Krunoslav Simon led Lokomotiv with 19.
The other two Group F games saw blowout victories for two of the favourites in CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid.
CSKA Moscow thrashed Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 100-65 in the Russian capital.
Taking a 47-40 lead into the second half, CSKA simply blitzed Maccabi in the third quarter to lead 71-52 and never look back.
Milos Teodosic led the winners with 22 points with Victor Khryapa flirting with a triple double of 10 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists.
Joe Ingles had 13 for Maccabi.
Real Madrid had no problems disposing of Zalgiris 108-72 in the Spanish capital.
Madrid, currently unbeaten in the Liga Endesa move to 6-1 in Group F with CSKA Moscow as they amassed an index rating of +151; a Top 16 record.
Rudy Fernandez paced the winners with 20 points as Madrid won with the services of Dontaye Draper and Jaycee Carroll.
“We wanted to play at a high rhythm and managed to do it,” Real coach Pablo Laso said afterwards. “I think that the biggest key was the way we started the third quarter, which allowed us to seal the outcome.”
With three Group E games played the night before, just one was played to round up the halfway point of the Top 16, as Fenerbahce beat Anadolu Efes in the Istanbul derby.
Fenerbahce, based on the Asian side of Istanbul, rallied away in the fourth quarter after a close first three quarters.
Bojan Bogdanovic led Fenerbahce with 17 points.
{youtube}saXD1Q6zKIY{/youtube}
