Real Madrid, Monaco, Maccabi and Olympiacos were all victorious on Thursday night
Game Center: Three home winners tonight; PAO, Zvezda triumph on the road
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Friday, December 27
Virtus Segafredo Bologna 83-69 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
Virtus improved to 3-1 under coach Dusko Ivanovic and 5-13 overall after thrashing ASVEL 83-69, with the visitors putting some gloss on the final scoreline after trailing by 21 points midway through the final frame. With this defeat, ASVEL drops to an 8-10 record. Achille Polonara was Virtus's star man on the night after posting 17 points and 9 rebounds. Will Clyburn added 13 points for the hosts, while Matt Morgan and Momo Diouf both chipping in with 10 points apiece. Theo Maledon netted 20 points for ASVEL, with 11 coming from the free-throw line. Neal Sako was the only other visiting player to get into double figures, scoring 12.
FC Bayern Munich 69-80 Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens
Panathinaikos became the first team to beat Bayern at home as the reigning champion won a back-and-forth slugfest 69-80 in both teams' final game of 2024. Panathinaikos survived a game with 21 lead changes, deciding the contest with a 0-12 spurt in the final 4 minutes to improve to 11-7 and snap a three-game losing streak. Bayern dropped to 11-7 and now 8-1 at SAP Garden, its new home, as its offense struggled after having averaged 101.8 points in the last four home games. Kendrick Nunn shined throughout for a game-high 27 points while Konstantinos Mitoglou had 15 points, Jerian Grant 14, Kostas Sloukas added 11 points and 8 assists, and new acquisition Wenyen Gabriel chipped in 6 points, 8 rebounds and 5 blocks. Andreas Obst made 6 three-points for 19 points, Johannes Voigtmann collected 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Devin Booker scored 14 points. The league’s leading scorer Carsen Edwards was held to 11 points – 9.7 points below his average.
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 94-81 Paris Basketball
Baskonia returned to winning ways by downing Paris 94-81 at Buesa Arena in Round 18 on Thursday. Baskonia improved to 8-10 in the standings while Paris dropped to 11-6. Chima Moneke led the winners with 29 points and 10 rebounds. Markus Howard added 28 points, while Nikos Rogkavopoulos netted 10. Nadir Hifi led Paris with 16 points. TJ Shorts added 14 and Maodo Lo had 12, while Collin Malcolm got 10.
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade 90-81 Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
Partizan snapped a two-game skid in the EuroLeague and improved to 8-10 after a high-octane 90-81 home win over Fenerbahce, as Duane Washington poured in a career-high 27 points for the hosts. The result also means that Fenerbahce dropped to 10-7 after suffering its fifth loss in the last six in Europe’s premier club competition, as the visitors were on the back foot from start to finish. Carlik Jones racked up 14 points, 5 boards and as many assists while Tyrique Jones chipped in with 13 points for Partizan, which won the battle of the boards 34-27 and shot 29 of 44 from inside, where the hosts totally subdued the Turkish giant. At the other end, Nigel Hayes-Davis paced Fenerbahce with 19 points, Marko Guduric netted 14 and Sertac Sanli added 12.
FC Barcelona 74-78 Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade
In a tight contest that went down to the wire, Crvena Zvezda pulled out a 74-78 win over Barcelona on Friday night at Palau Blaugrana. Zvezda, which lost the first game between these two teams in overtime and therefore holds the head-to-head tiebreaker improved to 10-8 on the season, while Barcelona dropped to a 9-9 record. Neither team had a lead bigger than 7 points in the second half, as Zvezda and Barcelona exchanged leads throughout the night. Kevin Punter's triple in the penultimate minute tied the game at 74-74, but Dejan Davidovac nailed a corner three, his only field goal of the game, with 21 seconds to go, which proved to be the game-winning basket. Filip Petrusev scored 17 points, Nikola Kalinic had 12, and Mike Daum netted 11 for Zvezda. Chimezie Metu netted 16 points, while Punter poured in 13 in a losing effort.
Thursday, December 26
AS Monaco 94-75 Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Monaco stayed strong at home to comfortably down Efes on Thursday. The Roca Team improved to 12-6 to establish a two-game margin over Efes at 10-8. Monaco raced into an early double-digit lead, which was extended to 49-34 at halftime. The advantage reached 19 points early in the second half, and that was too big a gap for Efes to ever threaten. Monaco’s team effort was paced by 14 points apiece for Mike James and Jordan Loyd. Dan Oturu led Efes with 14 points.
ALBA Berlin 69-80 Real Madrid
Real Madrid defeated ALBA for its third straight win and 18th in as many games against ALBA, to improve to 9-9 on the season, while ALBA dropped to a league-worst 3-15. Sergio Llull, who made his 425th EuroLeague appearance to tie Kyle Hines for the most all-time, scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the first half to help Real pull away to a 17-point lead, and the hosts never came closer than 6 points the rest of the way. Mario Hezonja added 18 points and 6 rebounds for the winners. David McCormack had 15 points and 8 rebounds for ALBA.
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 95-78 Zalgiris Kaunas
Maccabi romped past Zalgiris and improved to 5-13 after Jaylen Hoard led the way on a game-high 23 points, while Rokas Jokubaitis added 16 against his former club. Maccabi dished out 24 assists and won the battle of the boards 36-26 against a flat-looking Zalgiris which dropped to 10-8. Deividas Syrvidis and Sylvain Francisco amassed 15 points each for the Lithuanian team.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 83-84 Olympiacos Piraeus
Olympiacos extended its winning streak to three games by grabbing a hard-fought victory at Milan's Unipol Forum. Neither team managed to secure a lead that was larger than 7 points, with the two sides trading blows throughout the 40 minutes. With the win, Olympiacos improved its record to 12-6. Meanwhile, Milan registered its third straight loss to drop to 9-9. Sasha Vezenkov led all scorers with 21 points and Evan Fournier netted 18. Nikola Mirotic paced Milan with 16 points.