Rixos Cup: Olympiacos – Besiktas in finals
With Day 3 of the Rixos Cup 6 completed on Thursday the championship match-up has been determined with Olympiacos Piraeus set to square off against Besiktas on Friday. The preliminary round completed on Thursday with two matches, Olympiacos Piraeus defeated Anadolu Efes 83:78 in the first match of the day and Zalgiris Kaunas downed Fenerbahce Ulker, 82:77, in the second contest of the day. With the results of Day 2, where Anadolu Efes beat Budivelnik, 73:63, and Besiktas got their second win of the competition with a 78:62 victory over Zalgiris Kaunas.
The results give Olympiacos a 2-0 record in Group A, so they will play in the title contest against Besiktas, who was 2-0 in Group B. Anadolu Efes finish 1-1 in Group A and will play Zalgiris, who was 1-1 in Group B and finished in second, for third place. The fifth place game will feature Budivelnik against Fenerbahce, who both finish 0-2 in their groups.
Olympiacos – Anadolu Efes, 83:78
Olympiacos used a big first half to build a lead that they were able to maintain despite a hard charge in the second 20 by Anadolu Efes to earn a place in the Rixos Cup finals.
The two-time defending Euroleague champions put up 13 on Efes, outscoring the Turkish club 31:18 in the opening 10. Olympiacos added five to their margin in the second, sending the clubs to their dressing rooms at the mid-game break with the Greek side up 50:32.
The opening of the second half saw a big change in momentum as the local club from Istanbul outscored Olympiacos 23:13 to pull within eight, 63:45, with just the final 10 to play. Efes chipped off another three in the last frame, but weren’t able to completely bridge the gap and Olympiacos secured an 83:77 victory down the stretch.
Olympiacos: Law 9, Sloukas 15, Perperoglou 8, Printezis 13, Dunston 8, Petway 8, Mantzaris 5, Simmons 6, Papapetrou 9, Lojeski 2, Christodoulou.
Anadolu Efes: Planinic 8, Lucas 4, Birkan Batuk 2, Barac 6, Semih Erden 10, Savanovic 16, Doğuş Balbay 3, Hopson 16, Deniz Kılıçlı, Vasileiadis 6, Cedi Osman 7.
Zalgiris Kaunas – Fenerbahce, 82:77
Zalgiris Kaunas put up 19 on Fenerbahce in the first frame to build a lead the Turkish side couldn’t counter, ultimately giving Zalgiris an 82:77 victory.
The Lithuanians used a balanced scoring attack to defeat Fenerbahce, having five players scoring nine or more points in the contest. At the end of the first 10 Zalgiris sported a 32:13 advantage. Fenerbahce got things together in the second frame, outscoring Kaunas 19:14 to send the clubs in the intermission with Zalgiris up 46:32.
Ulker ran off the first nine of the second half to cut the margin to five, 46:41, and by the time the buzzer sounded to end the third frame they had reduced the lead to four, 61:57, on the strength of a 25:15 quarter score.
Zalgiris squandered the remaining few points they had of a lead, getting tied up at 69, but they pulled away again in the final minute to secure an 82:77 win.
Zalgiris Kaunas: Dentmon 16, Jankunas 10, Milaknis 7, Lipkevicius 9, Klimavicius 10, Cizauskas 2, Vecvagars 11, Jogela 5, Kariniaukas 3, Dimsa 5, Kupsas 4, Barauskas.
Fenerbahçe Ülker: McCalebb 9, Melih Mahmutoğlu 21, Metecan Birsen 5, Preldziç 10, Ayberk Olmaz 4, Kenan Sipahi 6, Barış Ermiş 15, İzzet Türkyılmaz 5, Berk Uğurlu 2.