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 American guard Matt Janning scored a three-pointer on the buzzer to
give Anadolu a 75-72 home win over Real and cut their lead in the
best-of-five quarter-final series to 2-1, with Game Four taking
place in Istanbul on Thursday.
In Athens, forward Georgios Printezis shone as Olympiakos beat
Barcelona 73-71 to nose ahead 2-1 in the series and put themselves
in a commanding position to reach the May 15-17 Final Four in
Madrid.
Real, who will be strong favorites on home court to win their ninth
Euroleague title if they advance, seemed poised to force overtime
after Jaycee Carroll nailed an audacious three-pointer with seven
seconds remaining.
But the effervescent Janning, the game’s top scorer with 21 points,
kept Anadolu’s challenge alive with an equally impressive long-range
shot which threw the home crowd into raptures and prompted wild
on-court celebrations.
Printezis scored eight points in a 13-2 fourth-quarter run as
Olympiakos overturned a 60-59 deficit and held off a late Barcelona
rally after the visitors had been kept scoreless in the first six
and a half minutes of a bruising final period.
The forward buried one of two free throws in the dying seconds and
Justin Doellman missed a last-gasp three-pointer at the other end to
put Olympiakos on the verge of reaching the season-ending showpiece
event.
“It felt like a final but we still have to win one more game in
order to qualify,” Printezis, who finished on a game-high 19 points,
told Euroleague television.
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“Barcelona are very dangerous and we have to forget this victory
straight away in order to start focusing on the next game.”
Fenerbahce Istanbul have qualified for the Final Four with a 3-0
sweep of holders Maccabi Tel Aviv while CSKA Moscow lead
Panathinaikos 2-1 ahead of their next meeting in Athens on
Wednesday.
(Editing by Toby Davis)
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