EUROLEAGUE – Olimpija win in double OT against Efes

LJUBLJANA (Euroleague) - It's only the first week of the Euroleague and already there's a double overtime classic that’s been played, and won by Union Olimpija over Efes Pilsen.

The Stozice Arena in Ljubljana was rocking on Wednesday evening as Jure Zdovc's team prevailed, 95-90.

In other games, BC Khimki scraped an 82-76 win at home over Asseco Prokom, Fenerbahce hosted Lietuvos Rytas and rolled to an 86-69 victory and Virtus Roma spanked Brose Baskets Bamberg 83-65 in the Eternal City.

The game of the night was in Ljubljana, where Union Olimpija snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Trailing 71-68 with 12.1 seconds left in regulation, Slovenia international Goran Jagodnik earned a trip to the line and made one of two free-throws.

Efes failed to box out and Union Olimpija’s Kevinn Pinkney hauled in the offensive rebound and drew a foul with eight seconds to play.

He made both free-throws to knot the contest.

Igor Rakocevic had an opportunity to win the game for Efes, who recently beat Turkish rivals Fenerbahce in the 26th Presidential Cup, but the Serbian sharpshooter missed with an off-balance shot at the buzzer.

Pinkney missed a shot at the end of the first overtime that would have won the hosts the game.

Veteran forward Jagodnik put Olimpija in front to stay with two shots from the charity stripe.

He followed on his team's next possession with an offensive rebound and put-back for an 89-86 advantage just 1:25 from the end.

Each team made four consecutive free-throws before Efes’ Andrew Wisniewski, with his team behind 93-90 with 20 seconds to play, missed from long range.

Union Olimpija held on.

"We bounced back twice at the end of regulation and also at the end of the first overtime and never gave up the fight,” said winning coach Jure Zdovc.

"This is a good sign for the next games, but we still have long way to go to become a more stable team."

The 27-year-old Pinkney, who spent a couple of seasons in Italy and was last year in Israel with Hapoel Jerusalem, led Union Olimpija with 23 points.

Jagodnik came off the bench and finished with 21.

Rakocevic paced Efes with 23 and Turkey national team guard Kerem Tunceri added 15 for Efes.

Keith Langford had 17 points and Russia's Vitaly Fridzon poured in 13 in Khimki's season-opening victory over Prokom.

JR Giddens and Daniel Ewing had 20 and 18 points, respectively, for the Polish outfit.

Lithuania big man Darjus Lavrinovic poured in 21 points for Fenerbahce in their 17-point victory over Lietuvos Rytas.

New signing Khalid El-Amin didn't play for Lietuvos Rytas.

Martynas Gecevicius, 22, a member of Lithuania's bronze-medal winning side at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey, scored 12 points but turned the ball over six times in 35 minutes for Lietuvos Rytas.

Rising star Jonas Valanciunas had 10 points and 10 rebounds in just under 17 minutes.

Meanwhile in Rome, the wheels came off spectacularly for Brose Baskets in the third quarter.

Trailing 39-36 at the interval, the Romans outscored Bamberg 24-10 over the next 10 minutes to take command.

Charles Smith had 16 points and recent signing Vladimir Dasic of Montenegro contributed 10 along with seven rebounds and three steals for Roma.

FIBA