A last second stop from Bo McCalebb ensured victory for Montepaschi Siena, as they edged Olympiacos 81-80 to level their quarter-final playoff series 1-1.
After missed free throws by Igor Rakocevic with 5.8 seconds left – Olympiacos thought they had a chance – but once Georgios Printezis, who was the hero of game one, brought the ball past half-court, McCalebb stole the ball cleanly off him and ran untouched to seal victory for the Italians.
It was almost a sense of deja vu, when Siena raced to a 67-53 lead after three periods of play, but the Reds came storming back, like they did in game one. And with 17 seconds left, nearly completed their comeback when a pair of foul shots from Vassilis Spanoulis brought Olympiacos to within a point (79-78), but Montepaschi had enough in them to get the job done.
McCalebb led Siena with 21 points with Ksistof Lavrinovic hitting 18.
Printezis led Olympiacos with 15 points, with Pero Antic scoring 11, which happened to be the visitors first 11 points of the night.
CSKA comfortable against Bilbao.
CSKA Moscow have gone 2-0 up in their quarter-final series following a 79-60 win over Gescrap Bilbao.
The Russian champions need just one more win to advance to the Final Four and as for Bilbao, they now have a mountain to climb as the series moves to Spain next week.
Bilbao did hang around for the majority of the contest and thought they would be in with a chance of an upset, only trailing 58-52 headed to the final period, but CSKA stepped up a gear winning the final ten minutes 21-8 to secure the win.
Andrei Kirilenko was in sublime form, as he racked up a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds for Moscow. Milos Teodosic also contributed as he dished out nine assists to go with his 18 points. Bilbao only had two players in double digits – Raul Lopez leading with 13 points, supported by Aaron Jackson’s 12.
