EUROLEAGUE – Fener, Barca win on dramatic Thursday; Pana, Maccabi roll

ISTANBUL (Euroleague) - Basketball fans in Istanbul, Ljubljana and Spain are out of breath after an emotion-packed Thursday night of the Euroleague Top 16.

While Panathinaikos blew out Unicaja Malaga in Athens and Maccabi Tel Aviv hammered Lottomatica Roma in Israel, two heart-stopping thrillers were played in Turkey, and Slovenia.

On the same Sinan Erdem Dome floor where the knockout games were played at last year’s FIBA World Championship, one of the Turkish national team heroes, Omer Onan (pictured), had 22 points to lead Fenerbahce Ulker past Power Electronics Valencia, 75-73, while in Ljubljana, the site of EuroBasket 2013, there were 13,000 spectators jammed into the Stozice Arena to see Regal Barcelona scrape a 68-67 triumph over Olimpija Ljubljana.

Fener, who won at Olympiacos in their opening Top 16 game, led for most of the contest but Valencia hung around thanks to their relentless defense and tenacity on the offensive boards.

Eighteen of Valencia’s 36 rebounds came on the offensive glass, including five by Lithuania captain and center, Robertas Javtokas.

The Spanish team had trailed by eight points early in the third quarter but tied it at 47-47 on a basket by Serhiy Lishchuk.

France international Nando De Colo had a chance to put Valencia in front but was off the mark and Onan made one of two free-throws before Sarunas Jasikevicius drilled a jumper with his foot on the arc for a 50-47 lead.

Jasikevicius then got the more than 15,600 fans to their feet when he dribbled in and banked in a runner on the right to take the lead to five.

A De Colo three-pointer, though, would end up cutting the deficit to 54-52 with at the end of the third quarter.

A key sequence in the contest occurred after two free-throws by De Colo and an eight-footer by Serbia national team forward Dusko Savanovic had given Valencia a 63-62 lead.

Mirsad Turkcan was left open in the right corner in front of the Valencia bench and caught a pass from Marko Tomas before drilling a three-pointer to give the lead right back to Fener.

Omar Cook missed for Valencia, and Onan darted into the lane and scored with a lay-up to take the lead back to four.

Fener then threatened to blow the game wide open, with baskets by Onan, Darjus Lavrinovic and Emir Preldzic taking the lead to 75-66.

Valencia boss Svetislav Pesic took a timeout before Rafa Martinez brought the visitors back.

The shooting guard exploded into the lane and made a lay-up and then sank two free-throws to close the gap to five.

Not long after he was fouled on a drive to the basket but made just one of two.

After a Preldzic miss, Javtokas scored to cut the deficit to 75-73.

Fenerbahce gave the ball to Turkcan again and he was off target from long range, but the Turkish outfit grabbed the rebound and ran more time off the clock before Marko Tomas missed from the arc.

Valencia rebounded with 12 seconds to go, brought the ball up the floor and end up getting the ball into the hands of Martinez in the right corner.

Preldzic rescued Fener, twice blocking the Spaniard’s potential game-winning three-pointers and the final horn sounded.

Neven Spahija, the Fener coach who had been at the helm of Valencia last season and led them to victory in the Eurocup, said: “We were expecting a real hard game and we found what we expected.

“To tell you the truth, this was the hardest game of the season so far.”

Fener are now 2-0 in Top 16 Group H and Valencia 1-1, with Olympiacos also 1-1 following their win over Zalgiris (0-2) on Wednesday.

In Ljubljana, a couple of 1-0 teams squared off and defending Euroleague champions Barcelona escaped with a one-point win courtesy of a Juan Carlos runner with 1:39 remaining.

Navarro, with his team trailing 67-66, drove into the lane and despite being closely guarded by Saso Ozbolt, made the shot.

Kenny Gregory failed to score from the arc for Union Olimpija, but Roger Grimau, who had 11 points on five-of-seven shooting, missed for Barca and Vlado Ilievski rebounded to give the hosts a chance to win.

Gregory attacked the basket and missed, however, and time expired.

Barcelona, who got 27 points from Navarro, improved to 2-0 in Group F and dropped Jure Zdovc’s Ljubljana outfit to 1-1.

Erazem Lorbek, the Slovenia international who was back home playing for Barcelona, had 12 points, seven rebounds and a couple of steals.

“Union Olimpija played really well, but the crowd especially was phenomenal,” he said.

“We have not played in Tel Aviv yet, but so far I have not seen an atmosphere like the one in Ljubljana."

Ricky Rubio, Spain’s national team playmaker, had six points, three assists, six rebounds and a steal for Barca.

Gregory and Giorgi Shermadini each had 14 points for Union Olimpija, with the former also pulling down nine rebounds.

There were easy wins for Maccabi and Panathinaikos.

Maccabi, also 1-1 in Group F, utterly destroyed Roma 99-58.

Victory was in the bag by half-time for David Blatt’s team when they led 57-31.

They ended up out-rebounding Roma 50-28

Greece international Sofoklis Schortsanitis had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Maccabi, with Israel’s Lior Eliyahu contributing 18 points.

Maccabi forward David Blu said: "I don't think I ever played in such a one-sided Euroleague game. Our defense made the big difference.”

Unicaja weren’t at full strength at Panathinaikos with Robert Archibald, Uros Tripkovic and Terrell McIntyre all hurt and unavailable.

The Greens were in total control by half-time when they led 45-35 and cruised to an 82-56 victory.

Pana improved to 2-0 in Group E while Unicaja fell to 0-2.

They trail Caja Laboral and Lietuvos Rytas (both 1-1).

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