Virtus Bologna vs Valencia 

In the first-ever Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game between Virtus Bologna and Valencia, the black-and-white Italian team found the 89-59 victory over the Spaniards. 

The Virtus Bologna newcomers Jordan Mickey and Semi Ojeleye were the best ones on Sergio Scariolo’s team, ending the game respectively with 16 and 14 points. Iffe Lundberg added 14. 

Milos Teodosic (5 r., 6 a.) and Isaia Cordiner (15 p.) made the fans in the PalaDozza arena enjoy several alley-oop actions, while Alessandro Pajola (6 p., 4 r., 2 s.) had a great defensive night, as usual. 

Co-Round 7 MVP Chris Jones was the highest scorer for Valencia. The former Maccabi Tel Aviv and ASVEL playmaker had 10 points in his team’s loss, being the only one in double digits. 

Since the beginning of the game, Virtus Bologna imposed its rhythm on both ends of the floor, putting on an offensive show and closing the first half up by 17 points. 

Valencia couldn’t convert from downtown and ended the game shooting 6/36 from three. On defense, Alex Mumbru’s team decided to double or triple-teaming the opponents under the basket on several occasions, giving Virtus an advantage from deep (14/28). 

Sergio Scariolo, who won EuroBasket 2022 with Valencia’s own Jaime Pradilla and Xabi Lopez-Arostegui, didn’t have Tornike Shengelia, who missed the game due to an ankle problem. 

Awudu Abass is recovering from a knee injury and he’s not expected to play anytime soon, just like Martin Hermannsson, who suffered the same injury and underwent surgery. Bojan Dubljevic missed the game due to gastroenteritis. 

With the second EuroLeague victory in a row, Virtus Bologna found itself at a 4-4 record. Valencia suffered its fourth loss of the season and has now been reached by the Italian team in the standings. 

The two sides never met in the EuroLeague previously, but played in last year’s 7DAYS EuroCup, with Virtus winning 83-73 on the road. 

Real Madrid vs Alba Berlin

Walk in a park for Real Madrid against Alba Berlin. They won in a dominant fashion in Round 8 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, grabbing a 90-72 victory against the German champions. 

Vincent Poirier had a great game for the winning team with 19 points, six rebounds, and three blocks (PIR 28) 

Sergio Rodriguez followed closely with a near-double-double of 13 points, and nine assists, while Dzanan Musa added 10 points for the winning side. 

For Alba, who conceded for the fifth straight time after opening the season with three victories, Gabriele Procida scored 13 points, while Yanni Wetzell and Johannes Thiemann added 10 points each. 

Chus Mateo’s team took control in the second period, and never looked back. Real had 16 point lead after 20 minutes, but kept adding to their advantage, and took the third win in a row, improving the score to 5-3. 

Olympiacos Piraeus vs Bayern Munich

Sasha Vezenkov registered a career-high 43 (also a club record) in PIR after posting 20 points, 13 rebounds and four assists as Olympiacos Piraeus beat a shorthanded Bayern Munich team 82 – 71 on the road to improve to 6-2. 

Vezenkov, who also won eight fouls, hit a pair of free throws after an offensive rebound to seal his team’s win by making it 71 – 78 with 43 seconds remaining. Bayern had approached 71 – 76 after erasing a 15-point deficit in the fourth period thanks to an 11-0 run. 

Ognjen Jaramaz has 12 points and Isaac Bonga posted 11 points plus six rebounds for Bayern. The German side, that was missing Paul Zipser, Jason George, Corey Walden, Jan Wimberg and Elias Harris, reacted after a 6 – 23 start to close halftime down 30 – 43 but never cut its deficit lower than four points. 

Moustapha Fall contributed 16 points plus five rebounds to Olympiacos‘ win while Kostas Sloukas scored 14 and Thomas Walkup notched nine points, seven assists and six assists. This was the Reds’ fourth away win in four games on the road.  

Crvena Zvezda vs LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

Scoring the last eight points of the game, Crvena Zvezda mts outlasted LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, 71-67, Thursday.

Struggling to connect most of the way, Nemanja Nedovic made the decisive bucket pushing his side to a 69-67 lead with 7.3 seconds remaining.

Under the guidance of the new head coach Dusko Ivanovic, Crvena Zvezda fouled with 5.3 seconds left and was lucky enough to watch Yves Pons missing both free throws. A jump ball, the second in the last minute of the crazy Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 8 contest, led to Ognjen Dobric sinking two free throws and completing the 8-0 finishing sprint. 

Making the difference, Nedovic ended up with 11 points behind 4/12 field goals. Reuniting with his former coach, Luca Vildoza was the driving force in the nearly perfect first half drawing ten of his 12 points.

In the first game with Ivanovic in charge, Stefan Lazarevic sat out after appearing in the seven previous EuroLeague affairs under head coach Vlada Jovanovic. From three consecutive losses across all competitions and changing the play-caller, the Belgrade outfit jumped to 2-6 in Europe’s top-tier continental club competition.

In command for the first half, the reigning champions of the ABA League went into halftime slightly shy of the biggest lead, up 38-23. ASVEL then exploded for 30 points in the third quarter.

Both Nando de Colo and Jonah Mathews were sidelined alongside long-term resident of the injury list Joffrey Lauvergne (knee). Forced adjustments did not work in the first half but sure did after the break. Threes started falling and the crowd at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall was neutralized until the late surge. The French champions did not hold on and fell to 3-5.

ASVEL drew its first lead with 6:40 remaining in the fourth quarter and were up, 67-63, with three minutes left. David Lighty dropped 16 points. Charles Kahudi followed with 14 points after scoring 25 overall in his first five showings of the EuroLeague season. Retin Obasohan got 13 points before fouling out. 

Anadolu Efes vs Barcelona

Vasilije Micic and Will Clyburn performed with the force of two former Final Four MVPs and led Anadolu Efes to a 96 – 86 win over Barcelona in a rematch of multiple important EuroLeague battles of the last couple of years, including the 2021 championship game.

Micic finished the game with 22 points, five assists, and four steals while Clyburn produced 24 points and six rebounds.

He had 21 of his points in the fourth period to help Efes retain a steady two-possession advantage and push back every effort Barcelona made to become threatening.

Nicolas Laprovittola dropped a career-high 28 points for Barcelona but his scoring record wasn’t enough. He made five straight points for the 92 – 86 with 50 seconds remaining in the last stand for the Blaugrana but that was the closest his team went after trailing by a margin around double figures for most of the second half.

Efes, that snapped a three-game skid, led for the entire match following the first 13 minutes and after falling behind 16 – 22 in the first quarter. Ergin Ataman’s players began hitting 3-pointers to finish halftime with 8-14 from beyond the arc as they took a 45 – 41 lead.

The halftime break didn’t do any good for Barca. Efes began the third period with an 8 – 0 run and retained a lead beyond shooting distance for the rest of the match.

Around the mid of the third quarter, Barca coach Sarunas Jasikevicius had what seemed to be an argument with Nikola Kalinic (10 points, four rebounds) and sent him to the locker room.