EUROLEAGUE – Armani Jeans dig deep and beat Efes Pilsen

MILAN (Euroleague) - Armani Jeans Milano won a vital game against Efes Pilsen on Wednesday night as the race for the Euroleague Top 16 heated up across the continent.

The 84-70 triumph, in which David Hawkins scored 24 points and handed out five assists for Milano, has left each side with 4-4 records in Group D.

Milano beat Efes and moved into third place in the pool by virtue of the better goal differential in their two meetings.

The Turkish giants had won the first encounter 82-74 but they faltered against a Milano team that had to overcome the loss of injured trio Jonas Maciulis, Marius Petravicius and Oleksiy Pecherov.

Also on Wednesday, Spirou Charleroi hammered Brose Baskets Bamberg 75-61 in Belgium while CSKA Moscow kept their faint hopes of advancing to the next stage alive with a 73-63 win over Power Electronics Valencia.

Montepaschi Siena also rolled to their seventh victory in eight games against winless Cibona Zagreb.

There were nothing but smiles in the Milano changing room after their success.

"It was a victory for our pride," Armani Jeans coach Piero Bucchi said.

"The team was coming off a bad week and reacted by playing a great game."

Armani Jeans had followed up their defeat last week at Union Olimpija with a thrashing at the hands of Montepaschi Siena in Italy’s Lega A.

"We are in the running to advance to the Top 16, but we need to win the next game with Valencia," Bucchi said.

"We'll play that game in Biella, and we hope to have our fans coming there to support us."

Valencia have been one of the hottest teams the past few weeks following the dismissal of coach Manuel Hussein and appointment of Svetislav Pesic as his replacement.

Hussein was shown the door after an 80-69 home defeat to Milano.

Valencia had destroyed CSKA in Spain 82-57 back on November 3, one of the few highlights of Hussein’s reign.

CSKA went into Wednesday’s clash a wounded lion, having won just once in seven games and coming off two straight defeats in the Russian PBL.

It was a very tight contest but in the fourth quarter, they powered their way to a 73-63 victory.

One key stretch came in the first minute of the last frame.

After France international Florent Pietrus sank two free-throws for a 51-48 lead, Russia's EuroBasket 2007 hero JR Holden went to the other end and buried a three-pointer.

On the play, the referees called a technical on the Valencia bench.

Trajan Langdon went to the line and missed a free-throw but then made the second.

CSKA maintained possession because of the technical and Pietrus was whistled for a foul on Matjaz Smodis and the Slovenian drilled one of two to make it a five-point trip down the floor for the Russian giants.

Valencia twice pulled to with one but CSKA kept their noses in front and overcame a late technical by Smodis to record a 10-point win.

"We fought hard, we controlled the game and had a chance to win it for 35 minutes," Pesic said.

"In the last five minutes, CSKA used its experience and we made some bad decisions."

Pesic is looking forward to returning to Spain and having a few practices with his team.

"We have played five games in 14 days against tough opponents and after long flights, lost just once, and now we have a chance to rest and to restore our conditioning," he said.

In Spirou Charleroi's 14-point triumph over Brose Baskets Bamberg, a result that gave the Belgian side three wins in eight Group B games, former DKV Joventut star Demond Mallet caught fire and scored 26 points.

Bamberg slumped to 2-6 with the setback.

Rimantas Kaukenas continued his fine play at Montepaschi Siena with 20 points and five assists in their 82-66 triumph at Cibona Zagreb.

The other teams in the Euroleague will be in action on Thursday night.

FIBA