Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens hung on in an overtime thriller to defeat CSKA Moscow 85-80 on Friday at Olympic Sports Center Athens. That victory was the fourth in a row overall and the 11thstraight at home for the Greens, who raised their record to 18-11. The win, coupled with Fenerbahce Istanbul’s loss at Real Madrid, put Panathinaikos alone in fourth place and Coach Xavi Pascual’s men can clinch home-court advantage for the playoffs with a win in their regular season finale next week at Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv. CSKA fell to 21-8 and will finish the regular season in second place regardless of the Round 30 results. K.C. Rivers led the winners with 17 points, including a three-pointer with two minutes left in overtime from which CSKA never recovered. Mike James and Chris Singleton added 13 points apiece and Nick Calathes tallied 12 points and 6 assists and made a pair of critical free throws and forced a turnover in the final minute of regulation. Nando De Colo and Milos Teodosic led the CSKA attack with 15 points each and James Augustine and Andrey Vorontsevich both scored 14. CSKA outrebounded Panathinaikos 37-44, but also committed 17 turnovers.
Score in each period: 20-17, 45-40, 58-55, 73-73, 85-80 παρ.
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