Thursday's round-up

Maccabi Tel-Aviv (2-1) survived a massive scare at home to French outfit Pau-Orthez (0-3), as they overcame a 12 point final quarter deficit to earn a 74-70 victory.

Lior Eliyahu top scored with 16 points, while Nikola Vujcic also had 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Israelis; Britton Johnsen had 20 points in a losing effort, but crucially, they all came in the first-half.

Maccabi were on fire in the final quarter to clinch the victory, although they still needed some cool free-throw shooting from Derrick Sharpe to clinch the victory, and end any hope of Pau making it into the quarter-finals.

Defending champions CSKA Moscow (3-0) made a major statement of intent in Athens as they crushed Olympiacos (1-2) 65-80.

The Russians had five players score in double figures, and look a great bet to return to Athens for the Final Four at the end of the season.

Matijaz Smodis put in a great performance for the champions as he scored 19 points in just over 25 minutes of play, as CSKA had the match won by half-time when they held a massive 25-47 advantage.

Partizan Belgrade (1-2) got their first victory of the Top 16 stage, with a comfortable 85-70 victory over Spanish side DKV Joventut (1-2).

The Serbs outscored their oppenants in every quarter in a thoroughly professional performance, with Predrag Drobnjak top scoring with 16, while Kosta Perovic had 13 points and 10 boards.

With CSKA now seemingly out of sight at the top of the group, the other three teams are in a race to claim the group's final available quarter-final spot.

Barcelona (2-1) won a vital clash with Efes Pilsen ( 0-3) 82-73 to move second in Group F behind Panathinaikos.

Juan Carlos Navarro top-scored for the Catalan club with 24 points including six three-pointers, while Jaka Lakovic put away 15 with six assists. Marcus Haislip scored 18 points and Drew Nicholas 16 for Efes.

The first half turned this way and that before a late Barca surge, including a three-pointer on the run from Lakovic, put the score at 37-30 in their favour at half time.

Efes fought back in the fourth quarter to take a single-point lead before Navarro led Barcelona home with eight points late on, including a delightful basket from outside the arc.

Aris TT's (0-3) hopes of making the quarter-finals appear to be over as they fell to a heart breaking 79-80 home defeat to Benetton Treviso (2-1).

The home side recovered from a horrible start where they trailed 8-20 early on, but the match was neck-a-neck for viritually the entire second-half, and the Greeks had a couple of chances to knock in a winning basket in the final 11 seconds after a Treviso turnover.

However, some big free-throw shooting in the final minute helped the Italians stumble over the line. Terrell Lyday had 19 points for Treviso, while Savvas Iladis had 23 in defeat.