By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The motive of qualifying to Top16, the mediocre night of Olympiacos and the pride of Valencia gave to Galatasaray a spot in the second phase of Euroleague. The Turks beat the Reds (79-74) and qualified thanks to Valencia‘s win over Neptunas (103-65).
Despite missing Zoran Erceg due to injury, without fans on their gym and practically playing just with seven players, Galatasaray managed to prevail over Olympiacos. The Greeks were missing Printezis and Mantzaris, while Bryant Dunston was hurt during the warm up and also didn’t play, but that can’t be used as an excuse against an opponent with so many absences. Olympiacos managed to get within one point (67-66) with three minutes left but the hosts answered with a 10-4 run (77-70) and the game was over. Carlos Arroyo with 24 points was the top scorer of the game. Now if Crvena Zvezda beats Laboral Kutxa, the Serbs and Galatasaray will meet again in Top16. It’s interesting and we hope that this time it will be only about basketball.
On the contrary, Neptunas on the road, despite the fact that Top16 qualification was on the line, couldn’t do something better than usual. The Lithuanians when they don’t play at home are simply a shadow of what they can do at Klaipeda. Valencia took advantage of that on the way to 103-65 triumph with seven players scoring in double digits and Romein Sato having a double double. Both teams will continue their season in Eurocup.
On the first game of the night, the top team of Group B CSKA Moscow had an easy task against already disqualified from Top16 Limoges and got the 88-56 win with Vitaly Fridzon being the top scorer with 19 points.