Brose Baskets have advanced to the Euroleague Top 16 from Group D after a stunning 92-90 overtime win at home over Partizan.
With this win, coupled with Lietuvos Rytas’ loss to Besiktas as well, the Germans can now look forward to the Top 16 while Partizan and the Lithuanians go out.
Bostjan Nachbar led the victors with 23 points, supported by 16 from Anton Gavel. Partizan, who have suffered a second straight last night eliminatation from the regular season were led by Vladimir Lucic’s 19 points.
With seven minutes of regulation remaining, Brose Baskets enjoyed a 73-64 lead as Partizan looked to be falling apart, but the Serbian champions were not to be denied, as they led 78-77 with 32 seconds on the clock thanks to foul shots from Lucic. The hosts though led again through Sharrod Ford but a put-back dunk from Drew Gordon with a little less than four second remaining sent the game into an extra session.
With Brose ahead 92-89 in overtime, Partizan had the opportunity to send the game to another extra period, but after missing two out of the three free-throws, Dragan Milosavljevic got his own rebound and with the last shot of the game, he saw his turnaround jumper miss its mark as the German crowd celebrated.
The loss was just as hard for Lietuvos Rytas as they were eliminated after a narrow 66-65 loss to Besiktas in Istanbul.
The Lithuanians had a chance to win it but Janis Blums lay-up missed its target, giving Besiktas a third place finish.
In his debut for the Turkish side, Daniel Ewing led the winners with 14 points while Serhat Cetin added 12. Lietuvos Rytas were led by Dejan Ivanov, who led all scorers with 16 points.
CSKA Moscow ended Barcelona’s chances of a perfect unbeaten regular season after they edged the Catalan side 78-75.
With both teams through, it was a case of finding out who would finish the group on top, and who would finish second. Both teams finished with 9-1 record, but Barca grabbed top spot due to the head-to-head record between the two.
Nenad Krstic led CSKA with 15 points as they came back from a double-digit deficit in the second quarter to get the win. Juan Carlos Navarro led all scorers for Barcelona with 17.
Elsewhere, Fenerbahce claimed the last Top 16 spot from Group A after a 77-69 success after Mapooro Cantu at the Ulker Sports Arena.
Bo McCalebb, who has struggled in this Euroleague season by his standards led his side with 19 points as Fenerbahce ended their regular season with a 5-5 record which was good for fourth place in the group. Manuchar Markoishvili led the Italian qualifiers with 20 points as Cantu bowed out of the Euroleague.
Khimki finished second in the group thanks to a 78-77 win over Panathinaikos in Moscow. The Russian side finished the regular season unbeaten at home while Panathinaikos finished in third, behind Khimki on the head-to-head.
Zoran Planinic led Khimki with 16 points while Stephane Lasme led the Greens with 19.
Real Madrid finish top of Group A following a comfortable 91-60 win over Union Olimpija in the Spanish capital as the majority of their starters played limited minutes.
Jaycee Carroll led the Whites with 17 points while the eliminated Slovenian side were fronted by Aron Baynes’ 13 points.
Maccabi Electra clinched top spot in Group B following a 78-62 win over Alba Berlin.
Despite closing the gap to eight points in the fourth, the Germans couldn’t quite recover from a 24 point half-time deficit as the Israeli champions ran riot in the first half leaving the 11,000 Tel Aviv fans inside the Nolia Arena happy.
Ricky Hickman led Maccabi with 17 points as they fiinish Group B with an 8-2 record, while Berlin, already through themselves, end with a 4-6 record, good enough for fourth. They were led by 16 points from Deon Thompson.
Unicaja Malaga have settled for second place despite an 86-62 thrashing of Elan Chalon in Spain.
In a well-balanced scoring attack, James Gist led the way for Malaga with 11 points. Cedrick Banks led Elan Chalon in their final Euroleague game of the season with 13.
Asseco Prokom bowed out of the Euroleague in style with a surprise 95-88 away win against already qualified Montepaschi Siena in overtime.
Lukasz Koszarek led the Poles with 20 points while Bobby Brown led the Italian champions with 23.
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