Basketball

Panathinaikos suffered on Friday an unexpected home loss to bottom club Laboral Kutxa with a 68-61 score that has dealt a major blow to its chances for qualifying to the quarterfinals of the Euroleague.

It would be fair to say Panathinaikos underestimated Laboral, that had only scored one win in its previous eight games in the second group stage of the competition.

BELGRADE - Red Star Belgrade beat Lithuania's Lietuvos Rytas 88-82 (23-27, 22-14, 25-19, 18-22) in Belgrade late Wednesday in the first leg of the Eurocup Basketball round of last 16.

Marjanovic, who scored 21 points, Dragicevic (16 points) and Nelson (13 points) led Red Star to victory, while Seibutis (17 points) and Gecevicius (14 points) were the top scorers for the visiting team.

BOLOGNA - Italy's Virtus Bologna has honored Serbian basketball star Predrag Danilovic by retiring his No. 5 jersey.

The ceremony took place on Sunday evening after a game between Virtus and Roma (85-89) in Bologna.

About 10,000 Virtus fans came to salute Danilovic, former Yugoslav player and current chair of the Belgrade-based basketball club Partizan.

Zack Wright scored nine points on his debut with Panathinaikos.

By George Georgakopoulos

Panathinaikos defeated Panionios at Nea Smyrni to extend its record this season to 18-1 in the league, but the Greens’ win was overshadowed by the host’s reaction to a key referee decision.

BELGRADE - The Serbian Red Star basketball team lost the match late on Wednesday to Russia's Nizhny Novgorod in the final 6th round of the Eurocup second stage, 78-74 (23-16, 17-25, 15-17, 23-16) and ended their participation in the cup as second-ranked in the L Group.

Red Star has thus been defeated once more by Nizhny Novgorod which won the first match with the score at 86-75.

BERLIN - Serbian basketball team Radnicki failed to qualify for the Eurocup round of sixteen as they lost the match to the host Alba in Berlin late on Wednesday in the N Group final round, 92-83 (21-18, 25-15, 19-26, 27-24).

BILBAO - Crvena zvezda advanced to the basketball Eurocup Round of 16 after defeating the home team of Bilbao by 85-81 (25-17, 12-20, 23-20, 25-24) in their fifth match in Group L late on Wednesday.

With a score of 4-1, the Belgrade 'Red-and-Whites' have secured one of the top two spots in their group, one round before the end of second stage.

BELGRADE - Belgrade's basketball team Crvena zvezda defended the Radivoj Korac Cup with a hard-fought win over their city rival Mega Vizura 81-80 (15-31, 27-11, 19-18, 20-20) in the final game late on Sunday in Belgrade.

This is the seventh national cup trophy for Crvena zvezda, and their first successful cup defense.