Turkish Airlines EuroLeague: Efes tops Fenerbahce in derby game

After action in Round 13 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague came to a close on Friday night, the top-4 teams in the standings managed to distance themselves from the rest of the pack with some key victories.

FC Barcelona Lassa, thanks to a 98-86 win over Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos Athens, managed to keep pace with Spanish rivals Real Madrid and maintain their top-3 position. Powered by the game-high 23 points of Nikola Mirotic, Barcelona provided enough firepower to outgun their Greek opponents. Malcolm Delaney accounted for five of the team’s 13 3-pointers en route to 17 points of his own.

Real Madrid played on Thursday and were able to handily dispatch with a former Greek Titan of their own in Olympiacos. Madrid prevailed 93-77 in convincing fashion to move up to 10 wins and hold onto their second-place position in the standings. Fabien Causer paced the whites with 18 points, while Anthony Randolph and Facundo Campazzo chipped in 15 points apiece.

Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv had an all-important matchup against fellow top-8 team CSKA Moscow. The former EuroLeague rivals locked horns on Thursday and it was the Israeli club that would emerge victorious 90-80.

The game was a full-on offense slugfest and thanks to the 22 points from Scottie Wilbekin and the 20 points from veteran Othello Hunter, Maccabi Tel Aviv was able to withstand a 22-point performance from CSKA Moscow’s Mike James.

The win allowed Maccabi to squeak ahead of CSKA in the standings. They are now 9-4, while the Army Men sit in fifth place with an 8-5 record, one that’s shared with Panathinaikos Athens.

League-leading Anadolu Efes faced off against Turkish rivals Fenerbahce Istanbul in a derby game. As expected, with additional pride and bragging rights at stake, both teams pulled out all the stops in this Thursday night tilt. At the end of the night, Efes came out on top with a 73-81 win.

Once again, Efes looked to Shane Larkin to deliver for them and he did. Doing most of his damage at the line (11-of-12 shooting), Larkin scored 20 points for Efes. However, the top-scoring honors of the game would go Krunoslav Simon who flirted with a double-double as he dropped 22 points and nine boards in the win.

Here are the rest of the results from Round 13 action at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague:

Khimki Moscow Region 104 – 87 ALBA Berlin

Crvena Zvezda Beograd 64 – 72 Kirolbt Baskonia Vitoria

Zalgiris Kaunas 82 – 86 Valencia Basket

FC Bayern Muenchen 77 – 69 Zenit St. Petersburg

ASVEL Villeurbanne 89 – 82 AX Armani Exchange Milano