The stars were out in force at OAKA Altion arena in Athens on Saturday for opening night of the third Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament, in memory of the late Panathinaikos Athens club president, with a pair of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague teams meeting 7DAYS EuroCup opponents.

In the first game, Anadolu Efes Istanbul pulled away from ratiopharm Ulm after halftime to win handily, 69-88, as Rodrigue Beaubois scored 22 points. Ulm led 25-24 after one quarter and the score was tied 42-42 at halftime, but an 11-26 explosion in the third catapulted the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champs to victory. Filip Petrusev added 17 points and 8 rebounds for Efes while reigning MVP Vasilije Micic had 12 points and 6 assists.

In the nightcap, overtime was needed for host Panathinaikos OPAP Athens to hang onto a 89-85 victory over visiting Partizan NIS Belgrade and a coach revered by the home team's fans, Zeljko Obradovic . Partizan used a 6-21 run over 7 minutes bridging the first two quarters to take charge of the scoreboard and amass a 31-48 halftime advantage. A 28-20 third quarter steadied the greens until Ioannis Papapetrou could stake a 76-73 lead on a triple with 5 minutes left. That set the stage for an 80-80 tie after regulation time that was broken open by the Greens with the help of three-pointers from Jeremy Evans and Papapetrou, the latter's coming as the game's last score with 38.2 seconds left. Papapetrou led the winners with 20 points while Kendrick Perry and Jeremy Evans followed with 15 each. For Partizan, Zach LeDay scored 17 points and Yam Mandar 15.

Meanwhile in an all-EuroLeague battle to open the preseason supercup tournament of the VTB League, Zenit St Petersburg topped UNICS Kazan 76-83. Shabazz Napier rocked the house for the winners with 33 points, including 6-for-8 three-point shooting, and 4 assists. Zenit outscored UNICS 34-42 in the game's middle quarters, and that proved the difference. Jordan Mickey added 13 points and Billy Baron 11 for Zenit. Mario Hezonja buried 22 points for UNICS, while Isaiah Canaan and John Brown added 12 each. UNICS suffered from 28% three-point shooting (7 for 25) as opposed to 62% (13 for 21) for Zenit.

In Saturday's second semifinal, CSKA Moscow raced out to a 22-6 start and never looked back in defeating Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar by 91-78. The EuroLeague powerhouse guarded a 49-33 advantage at halftime and lengthened it to 74-57 on Ivan Ukhov's buzzer-beating three-pointer to close the third quarter. Lokomotiv won the final frame but couldn't get close to the victory. CSKA's Marius Grigonis, who became a second-time father on Friday night, let the winners with 16 points, while Alexey Shved added 14 points, Nikola Milutinov 12, Iffe Lunberg 11 and Ukhov 10. Lokomotiv got 20 points from Errick McCollum and 18 from Jonathan Motley.

In another national cup, AX Armani Exchange Milan stormed into the semifinals by downing Treviso 108-60 behind 18 points from Davide Alviti, 15 from Dinos Mitoglou and 14 from Shavon Shields.