Panionios took full advantage of a loss for Lokomotiv Rostov as they beat Spirou Basket 80-68 to sneak into the quarter-finals of the EuroCup.

Lokomotiv's loss to Turk Telekom earlier on Tuesday opened the door for Panionios to catch the Russian side in the standings, and having achieved that,they progress having beaten Lokomotiv twice during Group K action.

		Kennedy Winston

Even though they were relying on the result elsewhere - a game that had not finished as Panionios tipped-off in Athens - the Greeks were determined to make sure they did not waste the opportunity to progress if it arose, and they raced into a 31-17 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Spirou had taken an 8-4 lead in the opening exchanges, but Panionios obliterated that with a 14-3 run as Kennedy Winston found his range with eight points in the opening quarter.

The American youngster, 22, finished with 22 points, making a perfect four of four from two-point range and four of six (66.7%) from beyond the arc.

Spirou stopped the bleeding in the second quarter, holding their hosts to 14 points while matching that total themselves to make it 45-31 at the break after Winston sank another three-ball 28 seconds from the buzzer.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Panagiotis Kafkis allowed the hosts to open up a 20-point lead early in the third quarter and they kept that margin intact to head into the final ten minutes with a 64-44 lead.

Spirou were not done yet though, and Sacha Massot had six points as they scored the first 10 of the final period to close the gap to 64-54.

Dragan Dojcin's three-pointer with 6:51 left snapped Panionios back into action, and they were able to pull away again to make sure of the victory.

Kafkis finished with 17 points for the Greeks while Dojcin had 11 and six rebounds.

Massot led Spirou with 16 points.