Partizan once again showed that they deserved to qualify for Euroleague Playoffs by making a late run to upset Maccabi Tel Aviv in game one of the quarter-finals. The Yellows had a better start and they had a rather big 15-point lead already after the first quarter. Status quo was kept in the first half until Partizan began to slowly close the gap.
Veteran guard Dusan Kecman, who won Euroleague with Panathinaikos, had a stellar performance for Partizan with 29 points (3/4 2pts, 7/9 3pts). Meanwhile Maccabi's star Alan Anderson struggled to find his game as he only made 4 out of 13 two-point shots and missed both three-pointers finishing the game with 12 points.
Maccabi fans weren't too happy with their favourite team's performance and started leaving Nokia Arena before the final whistle. At the same time, the attendance in Tel Aviv was the highest of the game one – 11,500.
Barcelona hosted arch rivals Real Madrid. Barca confirmed the predictions by beating Ettore Messina's men in El Clasico 68-61. Pete Mickeal was the top scorer for Barceloa with 18 points. Real was led by Darjus Lavrinovic who collected 14 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Surprise package Asseco Prokom of Poland gave Euroleague favourites Olympiacos a run for their money in Athens. The Reds were forced to be in a chasing role as their opponents were ahead for large parts of the game. But eventually it was the Greek club who celebrated the win. Lithuanian star Linas Kleiza poured 26 points for Olympiacos. Qyntel Woods, former Olympiacos player, topped the scoresheet for Asseco Prokom with 23 points.
CSKA Moscow fans are either used to important games or they new the final score before the game even started. Only 3,900 fans gathered in Universal Sports Hall CSKA to watch their team facing Caja Laboral. Euroleague runners-up denied all the pre-season predictions by reaching the quarter-finals and constantly improving their form. This was clearly the case in game one of the quarter-finals as they left no chance for the visiting Caja Laboral who played with a recovering Tiago Splitter. Igor Vorontsevich had 15 points for CSKA which was enough for him to be the top scorer of his team. Santiago San Emeterio and Mirza Teletovic both scored 11 points for the Spanish side.
Full box scores can be found in the links below:
Regal Barcelona 68-61 Real Madrid
Maccabi Electra 77-85 Partizan
CSKA Moscow 86-63 Caja Laboral
Olympiacos 83-79 Asseco Prokom
