By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The second round of Euroleague’s Top16 started with two blow out wins in Istanbul and Tel Aviv and continued with two big derbies with the visitors prevailing in Bamberg and in Kaunas, where Panathinaikos‘ Roko Leni Ukic had his best game for this season.
- Everyone expected a big fight in Kaunas and that’s exactly what happened with Roko Leni Ukic (photo) making the biggest shots of the game that ended with a 78-73 win for Panathinaikos. The Croatian guard had 21 points, he gave a 6 point lead to the Greens (75-69) with five straight points 2,5 minutes before the end and that was enough for them. Zalgiris just couldn’t connect and scored just four point in the last four minutes. The Greeks after this win made one important step towards the play offs.
- Maccabi Tel Aviv wants to chase the play offs until the end of the Top16 and the 92-61 win over Siena was a big step towards this direction. The Israelis can build on their 3-5 record after the biggest night of Yogev Ohayon (19 p.) this Euroleague season in “Nokia Arena”. Maccabi got a double score over the Italians on the second quarter (24-12) and Siena couldn’t react in the second half. On the contrary, the hosts finished the game with an impressive 23-8 run in the last ten minutes.
- That was the game that could have been the chance for Fenerbahce/ Ulker to stay alive in Top16. It was proven to be the exact opposite. Barcelona got the easy win by 39 points (99-60), the half time score was 50-19 for the visiting team in a disappointing night for the Turks. It’s obvious that specially after winning the Turkish cup, Fener is focused in its domestic league and has no Euroleague aspirations at this point. It’s a realistic approach, but leaves a bad taste after such blow out defeats.
- Unicaja survived in Bamberg and got its third road win after beating Brose Baskets 68-65. Playing with two new faces, Matt Walsh and Jeremiah Massey, the home team for three quarters was out of synch, but with an epic 21-8 run cut the lead of the Spaniards to one point (63-62) 1,5 minute before the final buzzer. The team from Malaga had the control of the game for 30 minutes but in the end played with fire without getting burned. Boki Nachbar had the last shot, but lost the chance to send the game to overtime.