By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
This Thursday night was special from the start as CSKA Moscow (3-1) playing without Kyle Hines and Sonny Weems beat 85-71 Real Madrid (3-1). It was the first defeat of the season for Real Madrid in any competition and the end of a historic 31-0 streak in all competitions since the start of the season. The hosts started the game leading 23-10 after the first quarter, Real Madrid reacted and cut the lead to five (66-61) with 6,5 minutes left, but with a partial score 19-10 in the last minutes CSKA got what they wanted. Nenad Krstic (photo) with 18 points and 6 rebounds was the best from the winners.
In Istanbul coach Zeljko Obradovic led Fenerbahce/ Ulker (1-3) to its first Top16 win (77-72) against his former team for 13 years, Panathinaikos (3-1). The previously unbeaten in Top16 Greens trailed from the first minute, shot 10/40 threes and couldn’t win the game though they came back in the fourth quarter.
After those results, Barcelona in Group E and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group F are the only perfect teams in Top16 (4-o). Both teams were playing at home, the Catalans prevailed over Unicaja (83-79) and the Israelis over Partizan (88-67) which both have a 1-3 record. Also in Munich, Bayern (2-2) and Galatasaray (1-3) clashed for the third time this season and the Turks won (66-73) thanks to Arroyo and Macvan.