Euroleague: CSKA Drops Regal, 1 Ticket Left

With Thursday’s Euroleague contests completed, the Top 16 clubs from three of four groups are set and 15 of the 16 teams have been determined. Friday’s games will decide the final team as Group C still needs to determine it’s fourth qualifier. Thursday’s competition couldn’t have been more thrilling as six of nine games were within eight points, two went into overtime and three games that ended in regulation were within three points. The other three games were blow-outs as Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Alba Berlin 78:62 at home; Unicaja routed Elan Chalon/Saone 86:62 at home; and Real Madrid pounded Union Olimpija 91:60. CSKA used the last game of the season to give FC Barcelona Regal their first loss on the season with a 75:78 win on Regal’s home turf.

Group A
Coming into Week 10, Real Madrid, Panathinaikos and Khimki had already qualified for the Top 16. The final spot came down to the Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Cantu contest in Turkey. Fenerbahce gave their home crowd reason to celebrate as they came away with a 77:69 victory to seal the fourth Top 16 spot for Group A. Real Madrid wins the group title with a 7-3 record, Khimki takes second with their 78:77 win over Panathinaikos (who takes third) by winning the tie breaker having won both contests between them during the regular season. Fourth place goes to Fenerbahce.

Group B
All four spots in Group B were determined prior to this week. Maccabi Tel Aviv wins the group by virtue of the head-to-head match-ups with Unicaja Malaga as Maccabi won the first game by five and Unicaja won the second by two, giving Maccabi a three-point advantage. Third place goes to Montepaschi Siena and Alba Berlin comes in fourth. Asseco Prokom pulled a sizeable upset off to close out their 2012-13 Euroleague season when they traveled to Siena and beat Montepaschi 88:95 in overtime.

Group C
Zalgiris, Olympiacos and Efes are in. Games to be played Friday.

If Armani beats Olympiacos and Cedevita beats Caja, Armani is is. If Armani wins and Caja wins, Caja is in on the tie breaker by beating Armani twice in the regular season. If Armani and Caja lose, there’s a three-way tie for the spot and Cedevita would go on due to having a 3-1 record against the other two.

Group D
FC Barcelona Regal, CSKA Moscow and JK Besiktas has all qualified for the Top 16 prior to stepping on the court for their Week 10 match-ups. The last spot was potentially between Brose Baskets, Partizan, and Lietuvos Rytas depending on the results of Thursday’s games. Brose Baskets and Partizan put on an amazing show for the estimated 6,800 Brose friendlies that showed up to support the Bamberg boys in their quest to extend their season. Brose jumped out to a 25:13 advantage after the first quarter and held a 47:35 lead at the half. Partizan cut the difference in half in the third, sending the contest into the final 10 with the score sitting at 68:62. The visitors kept on the pressure and pulled even to give the fans an extra five minutes of entertainment. With three seconds remaining, Brose held a three-point margin with the ball in Partizan’s hands under the Brose basket. As Partizan brought the ball in, Dragan Milosavljevic wound up for a three-quarters length last effort to tie and was fouled in the act of shooting by Sharrod Ford, putting Milosavljevic on the line for three free throws to tie the score and send the game into the second OT frame. He missed the first, made the second and attempted to miss the third (with just over 1 second left on the clock). A Partizan team mate got the rebound and had time to toss up a baseline jumper as the buzzer went off, only half it hit the side of the backboard and send Brose on to the Top 16.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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