|
 Holders Real Madrid, the winners of a record nine titles, kept alive
their hopes of progressing as did Maccabi Tel Aviv, who have won
Europe's premier basketball club competition five times.
Panathinaikos went through with an 82-51 home rout of Poles Stelmet
Zielona Gora on the back of 18 points from guard Nick Calathes and
14 from forward James Gist.
Cedevita reached the Top 16, featuring two pools of eight teams, for
the first time despite an 85-82 defeat at home by Emporio Armani
Milan, who needed to win by 10 points to stay in contention.
Center Miro Bilan poured in 23 points and forward Marko Arapovic
chipped in with 16 for Cedevita, who rallied in the second half
after trailing by 14 points at the interval.
Khimki booked their berth after a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter
wiped out a 66-63 deficit at Strasbourg and earned them a 78-69
victory.
Guard Alexey Shved was instrumental for the visitors, racking up 23
points as the expensively assembled side from Moscow's outskirts
forced their rivals into submission.
"Everybody played hard and in the last five minutes we made some
tough shots," former NBA campaigner Shved told Euroleague
television.
REAL DEAL
Champions Real finally looked the part after struggling in a
fiercely competitive group, brushing aside Bayern Munich 86-67 away
with a superb second-half performance.
The Spanish giants outscored their German rivals 50-29 after the
break and now need to beat Strasbourg in their final game at home to
avoid an embarrassing early exit.
[to top of second column] |
"This is the most competitive group of all four as everybody has
beaten everybody else at least once and we knew before the
competition started that it would be difficult," Real coach Pablo
Laso said.
"We haven't played well for most of the campaign but have improved
in the last month and now we are in with a good chance of
progressing.
"We did a great defensive job throughout the game tonight but what
swung it our way was good offense in the second half."
Bayern now face a dogfight in the cauldron of Red Star Belgrade's
Pionir Arena next Friday, with the winners guaranteed a Top 16
ticket.
Maccabi also kept their campaign alive with an 85-65 home defeat of
already qualified Germans Bamberg, but still face a daunting task
when they visit Darussafaka Istnabul.
The Turks stunned Maccabi 84-73 in the reverse fixture, meaning that
the Israelis have to overhaul that deficit if they are to progress
with a better head-to-head record.
(Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
