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BELGRADE, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Serbian champions Red Star (Crvena Zvezda) extended their Euroleague winning streak to seven by beating Greek Panathinaikos 72-66 in Belgrade's Aleksandar Nikolic hall on Thursday.
Although Red Star's impressive 16-0 lead in the first quarter slowly melted in the third, enabling Panathinaikos to briefly take over the advantage, the Serbian team managed to seal yet another victory with an exciting finish at the 20th round of Europe's elite basketball competition.
Most efficient among Red Star's players were Marko Simonovic (with 13 points), Luka Mitrovic (with 11), Ognjen Kuzmic (10 points, 14 rebounds) and Stefan Jovic (7 points, 8 assists).
Kenny Gabriel (23 points), Mike James (19 points) and K.C. Rivers (12 points) were the top scorers for the Greek team led by coach Xavier Pascal Vives.
Vives blamed the defeat on a bad start to the game and inefficient defense.
"We got into the game very late and it was tough to win when you already are losing by 16 points difference in the beginning," he stressed at the press conference.
Red Star coach Dejan Radonjic commented that his team has a demanding schedule in future matches and that the most important thing will be to create conditions to keep up in good form.
"It was not simple to play at a level needed to beat Panathinaikos. We achieved a great victory in an interesting finish. It was hard, but we knew who we were playing against," he said.
Radonjic explained that all Euroleague games are tough, but that this one "was neither (the) toughest nor the most important one."
Red Star now has a 12-8 record in the Euroleague and retains fifth place in the rankings, while Panathinaikos drops from sixth to seventh.
In the 21st round, Red Star will play in Istanbul against Efes, while Panathinaikos will welcome Turkish team Galatasaray in Athens.
