Fener Pounded By Panathinaikos In Euroleague, Efes Also Loses

Fenerbahçe Ülker got a hard-to-swallow 91-73 loss to coach Zeljko Obradovic's former home Panathinaikos Athens on the road, while Anadolu Efes was stunned 65-62 at home in their round-three clashes, which ended the perfect record of both Turkish outfits in the Euroleague on Thursday night.

Panathinaikos enjoyed a remarkable success beyond the three-point line, as its accuracy rate was 69 percent, as opposed to the 19 percent of Fenerbahçe. US guard A. J. Slaughter paced the winners with 23 points. Esteban Batista added 14. Nemanja Bjelica tallied 16 for the visitors.

The Greeks caught Fenerbahçe's defense off-guard at the beginning of the first quarter, not to recover at all throughout the game. Fired up by Dimitris Diamantidis, Panathinaikos was up 16-8 halfway through the first 10 minutes. Panathinaikos extended the margin to double-digit figures soon and led the first quarter 31-19.

The Greeks opened the second quarter with another three-pointer and extended the difference to 20 points in the 14th minute, 41-21. Batista and Slaughter scored a total of 31 points for Panathinaikos. Emir Preldzic scored Fener's first three-pointer in mid-second quarter but not to be followed by others. Panathinaikos maintained its extraordinary performance from behind the arc to take a 59-36 lead into halftime.

The Greeks did not stop netting three pointers as the margin reached 30 points in the early seconds of the second quarter. Obradovic's men failed to bring the difference to below the 25-point mark, as the hosts were up 82-57 in the third quarter. Fenerbahçe played for dignity in the final quarter and partly achieved it, bringing the margin to below 20 points with three minutes left to the buzzer. Panathinaikos clinched a 91-73 victory to tie with Fenerbahçe in Group C with two wins and one loss.

Meanwhile, Anadolu Efes was suffering from its ineffective offense on its home court, losing the round-three match 65-62 to Zalgiris Kaunas. Efes' two-match winning streak in Group A ended with the home defeat. Serbian center Nenad Krstic tallied 22 points in defeat and became the only Efes player to reach double-digit figures. Edgaras Ulanovas was at his best this season, leading Zalgiris for the win with his 19 points.

Zalgiris took a 16-12 lead in the first quarter with its supreme performance in the paint. Nenad Krstic led Efes to take the upper hand in the second quarter but lost the momentum too quickly, as the visiting side was up 34-26 at halftime. The Lithuanian champions made little mistake in the second half, taking a 50-42 lead going into the last 10 minutes. Efes reduced the deficit to two but failed to last and lost the game 65-62.

Efes coach Dusan Ivkovic said after the game that his team had shown a performance that did not suit them at home. He noted that they had had difficulty focusing on the match in the first half and added that only Krstic met the expectations.

Elsewhere Real, winner of a record eight titles, made light work of Russians Nizhny Novgorod with a 112-83 home drubbing thanks to American Jaycee Carroll, who netted 32 points after nailing seven of nine three-point attempts. Red Star Belgrade also delighted their 16,000 home fans with a 76-63 win over Valencia, and Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised to an 84-69 victory at Alba Berlin.

ESRA MADEN (Cihan/Today's Zaman)