An interesting evening in the Euroleague.
The first matches of the 10th round of the Euroleague were played on Wednesday. It is the second part of the ‘double round’, and there were five games on the schedule.
The Maccabi Tel-Aviv team hosted Olympiacos in Belgrade, and the match was very uncertain.
The Greek team won 94:91, and the key man was former MVP Saša Vezenkov, who scored 21 points. At Maccabi, Jaylen Hoard was the most effective with 20 points.
Asvel basketball players surprisingly defeated Red Star 77:74. The French team led throughout most of the match, but it seemed that Zvezda would turn it around when they took the lead with a great run at the beginning of the fourth quarter. However, it was still not enough. Asvel reversed the score with a 6-0 run in the last minute and won 77:74. The best for Asvel was former NBA player Theo Maledon with 26 points, and Filip Petrushev led the Belgrade team with 18 points.
In the German derby, Bayern outclassed Berlin’s Alba with 115:86. Practically everything was clear after the second quarter, which Bayern won with 34:15, and they were better by almost the same score in the third quarter – 34:14. The Bavarian team had a handful of upbeat players, and Carsen Edwards excelled in particular with 25 points.
Monaco basketball players defeated Baskonia on the road in the Basque Country. The home team started the game atypically poorly, which is confirmed by the fact that they scored only seven points in the first quarter. Monaco maintained the advantage in the first half, but Baskonia completely turned the game around with a phenomenal third quarter.
However, Monaco was cooler at the end and they won 87:75. Typically, Mike James was Monaco’s top scorer with 16 points, while Moneke had the same offensive performance on the other side.
In one of the most interesting matches of the day, Real Madrid hosted Turkey’s Anadolu Efes, led by Croatian expert Tomislav Mijatović.
Real is in a big crisis, and coach Chus Mateo is under a lot of pressure from the public. However, this match certainly did not help him. Efes led throughout the game and ultimately won with 74:64.
At one point, it seemed that Real could come back, but Efes didn’t let up until the end of the game. Mario Hezonja did not have a good shooting night, he finished with 13 points with a modest realization of 5/17. The best player in the Croatian coach’s team was Elijah Bryant with 13 points.