CSKA Moscow led from start to finish as they defeated Real Madrid 81-72 in the Euroleague Top 16.
The win improves the Russian giants to 10-3 and they can win Group E if they beat Panathinaikos next week. Real Madrid slipped to 9-4, following this result.
Sonny Weems led the victors with 21 points with Milos Teodosic supporting with 17 points and seven assists.
“We played really good as a team,” Teodosic said afterwards. “It’s easy to make seven assists when you have teammates like I have. It’s all because of them. What’s important is that we won by nine points and are very close to taking first place in the group. We never stopped believing in ourselves.”
Rudy Fernandez led all scorers in vain with 24 points for the Whites.
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Six triples from Jonas Maciulis helped Panathinaikos to a comfortable 82-60 win over Brose Baskets as they sealed a spot in the last eight.
Maciulis had a game-high 24 points as the Greens improved to 9-4 in Group E.
“The main key was to control the rhythm of the game,” Panathinaikos coach Argiris Pedoulakis said. I think we had a fair win. Good luck to Bamberg for the rest of their season. For us it was a very important season.
“This season is very important because after being the best team in Europe according to trophies in the last 15 years, it was very important to keep Panathinaikos at the highest level. Only two players stayed from last season so we had to start from zero to keep Panathinaikos at the highest level.”
Brose Baskets, already with no hope of advancing to the quarter-finals were led by 14 points from Bostjan Nachbar.
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Panathinaikos’ win in Germany meant that Unicaja Malaga were eliminated despite an impressive 70-64 win over Anadolu Efes.
Marcus Williams led Malaga with 22 points as well as seven rebounds and seven assists, but it was not enough.
Group E enters its final round next week with the focus being on final standings. CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Anadolu Efes and Panathinaikos have all advanced.
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In the only Group F clash, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv destroyed a woeful Besiktas 101-58 at the Nokia Arena.
A dominant first half display saw the Israelis lead 61-27 and then it got out of hand in the third as a 30-8 third period scoreline gave Maccabi a 91-35 lead as the game entered a meaningless fourth quarter.
Devin Smith and Ricky Hickman led five Maccabi players in double figures with 16 points each.
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