FC Barcelona´s French player Edwin Jackson (centre) tries to escape between Darius Songaila (left) and Arturas Milaknis, both of Zalgiris Kaunas, during their Top 16 Euroleague basketball match played at Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona, on Friday.
Reuters/Belgrade
Heavyweight trio Barcelona, Panathinaikos and Fenerbahce eased to victory in the fifth round of the Euroleague’s second group stage on Friday.
Twice former champions Barcelona strolled to an 89-72 home win over Lithuanians Zalgiris Kaunas, Panathinaikos beat Galatasaray 86-77 and Fenerbahce triumphed 68-60 at Unicaja Malaga in the day’s most exciting contest.
Having lost both their home games in the Top 16, which features two groups of eight teams, an expensively-assembled Fenerbahce outfit won their third away contest with American playmaker Andrew Goudelock picking up 20 points.
Czech forward Jan Vesely, a former NBA campaigner, chipped in with 17 points and Serbian Nemanja Bjelica added 14 to go with 13 rebounds as the Turkish side boosted their hopes of reaching the playoffs.
“It was a good defensive performance that won us the game,” Goudelock told Euroleague television. “We moved the ball well in offence and made some tough shots but the key was containing Unicaja to just 60 points. This is how we want to play in defence every time.”
Croatia centre Ante Tomic amassed 16 points and nine rebounds for Barcelona, Slovenian Bostjan Nachbar had 15 points while Mario Hezonja and Justin Doellman scored 12 apiece.
Panathinaikos, winners of six Euroleague titles, led by as many as 21 points against Galatasaray with six of their players finishing in double-scoring digits.
Latvia guard Janis Blums recorded 16 points, including four three-pointers from seven attempts, while stalwart playmaker Dimitris Diamantidis collected 14 points, five rebounds and six assists.
The next round features a mouth-watering doubleheader on Thursday with Real Madrid and Barcelona locking horns in an all-Spanish clash while 2012 and 2013 winners Olympiakos Piraeus host CSKA Moscow, the only unbeaten team in the competition.
