Basketball

BELGRADE - A whole basketball arena in Serbia joined to sing a folk song in memory of the members of the legendary Alexandrov Ensemble who were on board the ill-fated Tu-154 jet that crashed off the coast of the Black Sea.

Olympiakos is joint second at the halfway point of the regular season with 10 wins from 15 games after downing Fenerbahce at home on Thursday, while Panathinaikos gave away a game it should have won at UNICS Kazan on Friday for its sixth loss.

Red Star Belgrade have caused another sensation at home by defeating CSKA Moscow 78-67 in a packed Kombank Arena.

The game was played in the 15th round of the basketball Euroleague late on Thursday.

Kolossos Rhodes forced AEK's third loss in the Basket League this season on Monday, allowing fourth-placed Aris to cut the distance to just one point from its Athens rival for the third spot, ahead of their clash in the capital in the next round of games.

BELGRADE - Red Star Belgrade on Thursday outplayed Real Madrid 82-70 (20-19, 23-16, 19-16, 20-19) at a packed Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in the 14th round of the basketball Euroleague, defeating the Spanish giants at home for the second consecutive season in European basketball's top-tier competition.

ZIELONA GORA - Partizan Belgrade overcame Polish team Zielona Gora (18-20, 12-15, 18-19, 20-14, 13-12) in overtime on the road in Tuesday's Group E, Round 10 game of the FIBA Basketball Champions League.

Panathinaikos defeated Baskonia 69-68 on Friday and has joined the Basques, Olympiakos - that suffered a bad loss at Bamberg on Thursday - and two more teams at the second place of the Euroleague table with nine wins in 14 games.

Greece's Euroleague representatives started another "double week" in the tournament very well, with Olympiakos beating Red Star Belgrade at home on Tuesday and Panathinaikos triumphing at Armani Milano on Wednesday.

Despite the absences of Giorgos Printezis and Daniel Hackett, Olympiakos strolled to a 73-65 home win for its ninth victory in 13 games in the regular season.

Olympiakos and Panathinaikos braved the strong challenges of hosts PAOK and Trikala respectively to emerge unscathed from a tricky Sunday, in the midst of a hot period in the Euroleague where they have to play three European games in just eight days.

BELGRADE - Partizan Belgrade defeated Besiktas Istanbul 86-71 (18-16, 26-25, 20-23, 22-7) at home in late Wednesday's Group E, Round 9 game of the FIBA Basketball Champions League.

It was the fifth win in the competition for Partizan, who are now fourth in the group table, a position that leads to the knock-out stage.