CSKA Moscow have book their spot in the Euroleague Top 16 following a 78-61 victory over Partizan in the Russian capital.
The game never looked in doubt from the mid-way point of the second quarter as CSKA’s defence tightened, allowing them to take a 48-36 lead at half-time. From then on, the Serbian champions narrowed the gap to single-digits on a couple of occasions but the hosts were always in control.
Sonny Weems paced the winners with 14 points in what was a balanced scoring pattern. Dionte Christmas added 13 and Milos Teodosic dished out 11 assists and four steals despite only scoring five points. CSKA are now 6-1 in Group D and look certain to finish second behind Barcelona.
“Obviously it was a good game for our team,” CSKA coach Ettore Messina said. “The offensive flow was probably the best for us this season. There were some strange feeling in the beginning because the opponents missed their point guard [Leo] Westermann and we missed power forward [Zoran] Erceg and center [Nenad] Krstic. Still we were able to control post-up situations, fought for rebounds.”
Partizan, who fall to 1-6, are as good as out with this result. They were led by Vladimir Lucic and Dragan Milosavljevic’s 12 points each.
Also in Group D, it was a special night for Barcelona and in particular Juan Carlos Navarro, who celebrated 15 years as a professional in style by leading his side to a 90-66 home win over Lietuvos Rytas.
Navarro led all scorers with 24 as Barca recovered from a 45-42 half-time deficit to reduce the Lithuanians to just 21 points in the second half while scoring 48 themselves. The Liga Endesa champions remain unbeaten at 7-0 and have their place in the Top 16 already booked.
Vilnius are level with Partizan at 1-6, they were fronted by 14 from Leon Radosevic.
Unicaja Malaga have now secured their place in the Top 16 with a 63-48 success over Asseco Prokom.
Even though they didn’t really get out of top gear themsleves, Malaga did enough to keep the Polish side at bay to get their sixth straight victory and go to 6-1 in Group B as Asseco Prokom miserable record away from Gdynia continues, they haven’t won an away game since December 2010.
Kosta Perovic led the Spaniards with 12 points while the Poles, who drop to 1-6 were led by Adam Hrycaniuk’s 10 points.
Euroleague champions Olympiacos have put one step into the Top 16 following a 75-53 victory over Anadolu Efes in Greece to go to 5-2 and take possession of second spot in Group C. The Istanbul side are now at 4-3 and in third position.
Kostas Papanikolaou paced Olympiacos with 17 points with Vassilis Spanoulis adding 14. Jamon Lucas was the sole double-digit scorer from Anadolu Efes with 15.
Alba Berlin grabbed the only away win of the night as they won 87-82 away in France against Elan Chalon.
Heiko Schaffartzik and Deon Thompson both inspired a shift in power between the two sides in fourth and the Germans held on in the final minute to secure the win.
Berlin go to 3-4 in Group B and occupy third spot over Elan Chalon, who are 2-5 and fourth. More importantly for the German side is that they hold the head-to-head over their French counterparts.
Yassin Idbihi led Alba with 16 points while Blake Schlib and Bron Rush led all scorers in vain for Elan Chalon with 21 points each.
EA7 Milano used a 25-9 third quarter to see off the threat of an improved Cedevita Zagreb side, winning 75-60 in the fashion capital.
Antonis Fotis led the Italians with 15 points as they go to 3-4 in Group C. The Croatians, whose run of two wins comes to an end are 2-5 – were led by Miro Bilan – who matched the veteran Greek with 15 of his own.
Fenerbahce got back to winning ways with an 85-68 win over Union Olimpija at the Uker Sports Arena.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 19 to lead the Turkish side who improve to 4-3 in Group A while the Slovenian side drop to 2-5 and need to win their remaining three games to progress. Dylan Page led all scorers for Ljubljana with a career-high 23 points.
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