By George Georgakopoulos

A tired Panathinaikos lost 86-69 at CSKA Moscow to see its chances of clinching a top-two finish fade, in its group of eight teams in the second round of the Euroleague.

Playing its fourth consecutive away game in 10 days, which included two matches against Olympiakos, the Greens were visibly tired in the second half of their encounter with CSKA after a rather good showing in the first half when the Russians led by just four points (35-31).

The Greeks could have hardly harbored any hopes for victory when they got just five points from captain Dimitris Diamantidis and six from Sofoklis Schortsanitis. There were also major problems in defense – the strong point of the team – with Panathinaikos conceding as many as 25 points in the first quarter.

CSKA stretched its lead to as many as 26 points (79-53) in the last quarter, but Panathinaikos managed to reduce the distance toward the end to retain some hope of winning by a greater margin when the two sides meet again in Athens so as to have a better head-to-head record should the two finish level on points.

At the moment, though, Panathinaikos is on four wins out of seven games, while CSKA has five wins.

Jonas Maciulis notched up 15 points for Panathinaikos, followed by Stephane Lasme and James Gist with 12 points each.