Bennet Cantu has qualified for the Euroleague’s Top 16, as they defeated Gescrap Bilbao on the road, 67-64.
Gianluca Basile hit a three on the buzzer to send the Italian side through in a game where they led for the majority of it, often holding a double-digit advantage.
Bilbao battled back and thought they would of sent the game to overtime following a bucket from Kostas Vasiliadis, which tied the game at 64 with 2.7 seconds remaining. But Basile hit an impossible triple to silence the home crowd at the Bilbao Arena.
Vladimir Micov led Bennet Cantu with 13 points. Marko Banic led all scorers, in vain for Bilbao with 16.
“Even if we forget the last shot of Basile, we deserve to win because we were ahead for more than 39 minutes,” Bennet Cantu coach Andrea Trinchieri said afterwards.
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“We played so good in the first half, and in the third quarter Bilbao played really good defence, but we made certain to keep our advantage.”
Anadolu Efes also qualified for the Top 16 with a comfortable 84-70 home success over Emporio Armani Milano.
Sinan Guler hit 14 points, with Sasha Vujacic and Cenk Akyol each hitting 12, as the Turkish side sealed their place in the next round. Milano’s elimination will be confirmed if Partizan beats Spirou tonight.
Asseco Prokom finally secured their first win of the Euroleague, with a 67-52 win over Union Olimpija.
11 points and a Euroleague record 18 defensive rebounds from Donatas Motiejunas, 21 overall was a highlight to the win.
Boris Rothbart led all scorers for Union Olimpija with 16 points, but it wasn’t enough.
Elsewhere, CSKA Moscow kept their unbeaten season going with a 87-74 win over KK Zagreb. Jamont Gordon hit 18 points ffor the victors. Krunoslav Simon led all scorers for Zagreb with 21.
Panathinaikos destroyed Zalgiris in Kaunas 94-59 in Kaunas thanks to a 26-5 second quarter rout from the Greeks.
Steven Smith and Nick Calathes paced the holders with 17 points each. Sonny Weems had 16 for Zalgiris.
SLUC Nancy, now without Nicholas Batum struggled and were comfortably beaten 73-53 by Fenerbahce Ulker.
James Gist led the winners with 16 points.
