The Euroleague Group Stage concluded with three Greek wins in the final round as Olympiakos sealed top spot, PAO finished second (behind real Madrid) and new comers Maroussi qualified for the Top 16. The latter achievement was perhaps the biggest surprise, with many having predicted that qualification to the Top 16 would be well out of Maroussi’s grasp.

Maroussi     83   Maccabi (ISR)     75

Athenian side Maroussi BC advanced to the Top 16 of the Euroleague in only their first attempt after downing Maccabi Electra 83-75 in a must-win game in Athens on Thursday.

Stevan Nadjfeji drained a pair of triples and Jamon Lucas hit two jumpers during a 14-0 fourth-quarter charge that ended a close game and set the stage for Maroussi to win.

Maroussi finished Group C with a 4-6 record, edging Lottomatica Roma for fourth place. Maccabi dropped to 6-4 and must settle for third place.

Maccabi led for most of the first three quarters, but Maroussi always stayed close. Perkins opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer, however that would be the club’s final highlight as Maroussi soon reeled off its game-winning run and celebrated a Top 16 berth.

Kostas Kaimakoglou led six Maroussi scorers in double figures with 18 points. Jared Homan shined with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Michalis Pelekanos had 11 points and 9 boards as the hosts out rebounded Maccabi 40-33. Lucas finished with 12 points and 6 assists and Nadjfeji and Billy Keys added 10 points apiece.

Maroussi boss Giorgios Bartzokas was understandably elated with his side’s progression.

“Everybody in Maroussi deserves congratulations for the big effort that has started last summer. Nobody really believed we could make it, but here we are in the Euroleague Top 16, which is incredible for the club.

“We were competitive in all ten games of the regular season, except the home game against Caja Laboral, while in the Top 16 we have to enjoy our participation. Tonight against Maccabi, we started very nervously, but at halftime we calmed down and returned to the get the win and the ticket to the Top 16.”

Olympiakos  81  Partizan (SRB)     60

Olympiakos became the Group B champion and earned top-seeded status in the upcoming Top 16 draw next week by downing Partizan 81-60 at home on Wednesday.

The reds finished first in Group B with a 8-2 record and Partizan was third at 5-5. Both teams were already qualified to the Top 16 before the game.

Linas Kleiza led the winners with 16 points. Yotam Halperin added 14, Ioannis Bourousis had 12 while Josh Childress got 10 for Olympiakos.

Kleiza and Bourousis shined late in the first quarter to give Olympiakos a 20-15 lead after 10 minutes. Childress and an unstoppable Kleiza boosted the hosts’ lead to 36-28 late in the first half but Dusan Kecman and McCalebb brought Partizan back to life, 36-33 at halftime.

An outstanding Roberts allowed Partizan to get its last lead, 44-47. Olympiakos improved its defence while Childress, Kleiza and Halperin fueled a game-breaking 15-0 run that allowed the Reds to get a 63-49 margin after 30 minutes. Olympiakos soon made it a 20-point game, 72-52, and never looked back.

Reds boss Panagiotis Giannakis after the game said, “We concentrated on defence, but we committed some turnovers on the offensive end in the first half.

That is why Partizan stayed close. But as time went by, we improved our offence, kept up our good performance in defence and sailed to an easy win. We had the opportunity to use all of our players and I think the fans enjoyed good basketball.”

EWE Baskets (GER)  64   Panathinaikos  67

Injury-riddled Panathinaikos found tough sledding in the final game of the regular season before using its experience to pull out a 64-67 road win over EWE Baskets Oldenburg on Wednesday.

The game did not ultimately affect the standings as Panathinaikos improved to 8-2 and was tied for the Group D lead with Real Madrid, but finished second due to having lost both games head-to-head.

Oldenburg finished last at 1-9, but having won its only game in the season opener on the road, spent the last night trying to give the home fans a thrill. The hosts led 62-60 with less than five minutes remaining, but the Panathinaikos defence made sure of the victory down the stretch.

Mike Batiste led the winners with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Drew Nicholas followed him with 14 points, including 4 three-pointers. Nick Calathes added 10 for the Greens, including some key plays late.

Panathinaikos was playing without injured big guns Nikola Pekovic, Dimitris Diamantidis and Vassilis Spanoulis, while Oldenburg was missing key player Jasmin Perkovic.

PAO big man Mike Batiste told the Euroleague.net, “It was a tough challenge for us to win against Oldenburg.

They fought hard throughout the game and gave us some big problems. They played very good defence, which explains why we had so many turnovers.

But in the end we can play much better than we did today. It’s not easy to play if players like Pekovic, Diamantidis and Spanoulis are missing, but we always want to win.

We were 13 points ahead and still didn’t finish the game at that point. We are happy with this win and moving into the Top 16 of the Euroleague.”