Russian side CSKA Moscow thrashed the European Champions Panathinaikos 91-75 on Wednesday to clinch top spot in their Euroleague group.
The Greek team is now certain to finish second in the group.

The Russians were victorious 91-75 following a strong second half that overturned the two-point advantage Panathinaikos had chalked up at halftime (49-47).
Panathinaikos needed to win in Russia to have a chance of topping its group and played a good first half against a CSKA that was without its biggest star, Andrei Kirilenko.

However, CSKA scored 14 unanswered points at the start of the third period and Panathinaikos didn’t stand a chance of recovering from that shock, with its captain, Dimitris Diamantidis, clearly not having one of his best nights: He finished the game with one out of seven field goals and just seven points.
Ian Vougioukas was the Greens’ top scorer in Russia with 17 points, while Steven Smith added another 11.

Meanwhile, PAOK was eliminated from the Eurocup on December 13 after going down 81-76 at home to Riga, while Aris will have to win its last group game next week against Rudupis to qualify after losing 78-72 at Nymburk.