Turkish side Efes sealed its ticket to the Top 16 by edging Panathinaikos 79-78 in front of 13,800 home fans on Wednesday.
This result prevents Group D rivals CSKA from reaching the Top 16 after eight consecutive seasons reaching the Euroleague Final Four.
Kerem Tunceri became the game hero by hitting the game-winning layup right at the buzzer, setting Sinan Erdem Arena on fire.
Ian Vougioukas led Panathinaikos with 18 points on 8-of-9 two-pointers.
Dimitris Diamantidis added 17 and 9 assists while Romain Sato had 11 points for the Greens. Rakocevic and Thornton fueled a 13-0 opening run, as Panathinaikos went scoreless in the opening 4 minutes.
Efes boosted its margin to 21-7 after 10 minutes and then again to 42-24 at halftime.
Antonis Fotsis, Sato and Vougioukas led the Greens’ wild third-quarter comeback and a three-pointer by Drew Nicholas gave Panathinaikos its first lead, 59-61, with 8 minutes left.
The game turned into a thriller, as Thornton gave Efes a 77-76 lead with 22 seconds left. Diamantidis sank a baseline jumper but Efes called timeout and Tunceri sent his team all the way to the Top 16!
Efes improved to 5-4 and made it to the next round while Panathinaikos still leads Group D at 6-3.
PAO forward Kostas Tsartsaris indicated that his side was inconsistent throughout;
“We were really bad in the first quarter. We allowed Efes to have a big margin in the game easily.
“Nothing changed in the second period but we came back like the way we should have come in the third period.
“We played better in the third period to balance the score and had a small advantage at the beginning of the last period.
“Then the game turned to a big fight to win. One shot for us, one shot for them. Efes were lucky tonight to win the game. We were looking for the next game to win to finish on top of the group.”
Olympiakos qualified for the Top 16 with a commanding 67-80 road win in Charleroi, Belgium against Spirou Basket.
Olympiakos improved to 6-3 and will at least share first place going into the 10th and final week of the regular season.
Spirou, meanwhile, fell to 3-6, which means it cannot catch three more teams above it – Lottomatica Roma, Real Madrid and Unicaja – all of whom also qualified for the Top 16 with the victory by Olympiakos.
The stars of the visiting team took turns taking over the game.
Ioannis Bourousis scored 15 first-quarter points on his way to a team-high 19.
Vassilis Spanoulis followed with 18 points and 6 assists, while Milos Teodosic was right behind with 16 and 4, respectively.
Rasho Nesterovic added 11 rebounds for Olympiakos, which was ahead the entire game after 3-2 and a brief second-quarter tie.
Reds head coach Dusan Ivkovic said after the match;
“I respect Coach (Giovani) Bozzi and all the people here because they are doing a very great job in this town during the last years.
“We were in trouble after our defeat in Malaga, where we did not control the game. Tonight, we stopped Charleroi in its transition game and that was the most important thing for us.
“We’ve also been able to play easy basketball, with 19 assists and some good shots, and now, we are on the road to the Top 16. I needed time to build something great with my team and we’re on the right path.”