Game Two round-ups

Maccabi Tel-Aviv have brought their quarter-final with CSKA Moscow to a deciding game three after hammering the defending champions in Israel 68-56

Just two days after losing by 22 points in Moscow, the roles were completely reversed as Maccabi dominated the Russians from the second-quarter on after the teams were tied 11-11 after one.

Maccabi held a 15 point lead at once stage in the second-quarter, CSKA got that back to ten by half-time, but near the start of the fourth-quarter Maccabi led by an amazing 22 points before CSKA put a gloss of respectability on the scoreline before the end.

As is so often the case when Maccabi play well, Nikola Vujcic shone as he scored 15 points and had nine rebounds while Willian Bynum (14 points) and Lior Eliyahu (13 points) also made strong contributions.

Barcelona also forced a game three with their ACB rivals Unicaja Malaga as a stunning individual performance from Juan Carlos Navarro saw them race to an easy 80-58 win.

The Spanish international missed just one shot all night, as he scored 25 points in 18 scintillating minutes of play, with five of his efforts coming from downtown.

Barcelona led 23-14 after one quarter and then never looked back as Unicaja struggled without their passionate fans in attendance.

The Andalusians will be glad to be returning home for game three but they need to find a gameplan to stop Navarro who will be fresh after having been afforded the luxury of sitting out the final quarter.

Panathinaikos moved into the Final Four, which will be in their home town of Athens, as they completed a 2-0 sweep over Dynamo Moscow with a 65-73 victory in Russia.

Despite shooting 12 less field goals than their hosts, the Greeks were in command of the game from early on and by mid-way through the third quarter they were 19 points in front.

Dynamo fought back in the final quarter but the eight point gap at the finish was as close as they got.

Ramunas Siskauskas had a fantastic night for Panathinaikos as he scored 19 points, with four three pointers, and he also had six rebounds.

TAU's big players produced big performances as they won 90-95 in Greece against Olympiacos to make it into the Final Four and deny the Greeks the chance to join their city rivals Panathinaikos in the semi-finals.

Olympiacos got off to a great start and led 17-11 near the end of the first quarter, but three three pointers from Serkan Erdogan in the second quarter saw the lead shift and once in front TAU never looked like losing.

Especially when the likes of Luis Scola (20 points), Tiago Splitter (18 points, nine rebounds) and Igor Rakocevic (17 points) really came into it in the second-half.

Olympiacos had 19 points from Alex Acker and managed to extend the game in the final minute by hanging and fouling quickly, but TAU always looked secure and iced the game with some steady shooting from the line.