Euroleague Top 16 Round 1 recap

After the brief warm up at the end of 2014, the Euroleague Top 16 kicked into full swing with the rest of Round 1 completed on Friday evening. There was plenty of thrills and spills as the 16 best Basketball teams on the continent went head to head in a spectacle of Basketball.

After the first round of the Euroleague Top 16, Barcelona will be left pondering their poor start after a loss at ALBA Berlin, while CSKA will be thankful to remain unbeaten after an overtime success against Fenerbahce. There was plenty more to talk about post-game, so here’s the recap of the action in Group E and Group F.

Group E
Two games in Group E were decided on December 30th when Galatasaray defeated Zalgiris Kaunas and Panathinaikos downed Maccabi Tel Aviv. Turkish club Galatasaray came back from a 35-41 losing halftime deficit against Zalgiris as the Lithuanian powerhouse crumbled in the cauldron of Istanbul to lose 78-69. Carlos Arroyo was once again the catalyst for Galatasaray as he provided 12 points and 5 assists for the hosts. In the other pre-New Year contest, Euroleague champions Tel Aviv continued to display patchy form as they lost to Greek giant Panathinaikos Athens 83-76. The Israeli champs had control of the game through 30 minutes, with the scoreboard reading 60-64, but a 23-13 run from Panathinaikos turned the game around for the hosts.

Euroleague Top 16 action returned to Group E on Friday as Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona opened their campaigns. Madrid travelled to Belgrade to take on Serbian powerhouse Crvena Zvezda, and the Spanish club would have known it would be a tight game. Crvena Zvezda is in good form, currently 15-0 in the Adriatic League, but the hosts could not stop Los Blancos as Madrid took a 72-79 victory back to the Spanish capital. Real held a 31-34 lead through halftime and went big in a 14-24 third act to put enough points on the board to deal with a late Red Star Belgrade rally. As for Barcelona, the Catalan club cruised through the Regular Season but was handed a rude awakening in the first game of the Top 16. Barca travelled to ALBA Berlin and were stunned 80-70 by the German BBL leaders. A 22-8 streak from ALBA shocked the visitors and propelled the Berlin contingent to a victory, while Reggie Redding, Jamal McLean, and Leon Radosevic all paced the Germans with 16 points each.

Group F
CSKA Moscow’s serene progress through the Euroleague this season was put to the test by Fenerbahce in Turkey. The hosts pushed their Russian opponents all the way into overtime, but eventually CSKA prevailed with an 81-84 victory. The Moscow club remained the sole undefeated club after Sonny Weems salvaged the game to send it into the added frame. It was a minor classic as Fenerbahce fought tooth and nail to protect their six game winning streak, but ultimately fell short.

Anadolu Efes maintained its good European form this season by taking out Laboral Kutxa Vitoria 67-72 in Spain. The hosts led big after ten minutes (24-16), but Efes fought back in the second frame to lead briefly before the teams traded through the middle quarters. Laboral Kutxa led heading into the final act, but Efes regained momentum to steal the game in the dying embers of the contest.

EA7 Armani Milan let go of home court advantage to succumb to Nizhny Novgorod in Italy’s fashion capital. It was certainly a stylish performance from the visiting Russians as they did Milan for twenty points, winning the game 59-79. It was Nizhny’s first ever Euroleague Top 16 game, and the club will be delighted with the start to this phase of the competition. Trey Thompkins was sensational for Nizhny as he doubled up with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Taylor Rochestie added 19 points and 8 assists for the winning effort.

Olympiacos has not been dynamic this season but the Greek juggernaut has displayed dogged Basketball, and it paid off again on Friday. The Piraeus club travelled to Spain to take on Unicaja Malaga and came away with a 61-69 success. The visitors led at every split and despite Malaga’s best efforts never looked likely to lose.