CSKA Moscow comfortably defeated Panathinaikos 86-69 in the Russian capital in what was a rematch of last year’s Euroleague Final Four semi-final.
The Greek side pulled back a double-digit deficit in the first quarter to pull within just four points at the half, but CSKA pulled away for good in the third period to improve to 5-2 in Group E. Panathinaikos drop to 4-3 thanks to this defeat.
Milos Teodosic led CSKA with 20 points and seven assists, supported by Sonny Weems who added 19.
“We looked crazy a little bit just two days ago,” Weems said. “But today we had a really nice opportunity to become more confident, because that’s very important for all of us. It’s a part of basketball.”
The Greens were led by Jonas Maciulis, as he hit 15 points.
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Otherwise, it was a night of close match-ups in week seven of the Top 16. Highlighted by Anadolu Efes ending the unbeaten streak of Real Madrid in Istanbul.
The Turkish side scored a 74-72 win over the Liga Endesa giants to improve their own winning streak to six games and go level with Madrid at the top of Group E, both with 6-1 records.
Jaycee Carroll had an opportunity to snatch victory at the death but his three-point attempt hit iron as the fanatic Istanbul crowd celebrated victory. Jamon Lucas led the winners with a game-high 16 points while Rudy Fernandez led the Madrid charge with 14.
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Zalgiris left Bamberg with an 88-87 win over Brose Baskets thanks to three free throws with no time remaining in overtime from Marko Popovic.
With Bamberg looking favourites to claim their first win in the Top 16 phase, the Lithuanian champions gave the ball to Popovic in isolation, he attempted a three and got fouled with the buzzer sounding, he calmly sunk all three of his foul shot tries to give the Kaunas-based team the win.
Popovic led Zalgiris with 21 points as they move to 3-4. Anton Gavel led all scorers for Brose Baskets with 25 but he was the man responsible for fouling Popovic at the buzzer.
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It was a similar ending 400km away in Berlin as a pull-up three from Marcus Williams gave Unicaja Malaga a 67-65 win over Alba Berlin.
Despite Williams’ heroics, Krunoslav Simon led the Spaniards with 12 points as they improve to 3-4 while the German side drops further down the table on a 1-6 record.
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Barcelona were made to work for their win in Tel Aviv but eventually claimed an 82-77 success over Maccabi Electra in the only game in Group F.
Ante Tomic led the Catalan side with 18 points, while Lithuanian Sarunas Jasikevicius rolled the years back with a solid display, rewarded with 14 points. Juan Carlos Navarro matched him with 14, as well, as Barca move to 6-1. The Israeli champions, led by Ricky Hickman’s 19 points dropped to 2-5.
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