ATHENS (Basketball Champions League) - AEK reeled off their sixth consecutive win in the Basketball Champions League on Tuesday night but it remains to be seen if it will be enough to get them into the Quarter-Finals.

With Dusan Sakota hitting four long 3-pointers and pouring in a game-high 20 points, AEK scraped a 69-68 victory.

Now AEK will try to do what no other side has been able to accomplish in the competition this season and that's win at Monaco, or at least have the second leg end in a tie.

"I have mixed feelings," AEK coach Jure Zdovc said. "It was a tough game. We know what we can expect from this team, our opponent, how they play. But it's another thing when you play them. You really feel them.

"They really play aggressive, on the limit of fouls, and we couldn't really adjust to this. We made too many mistakes.

"We over-dribbled again, we didn't make the extra pass. We played selfish. On defense, it was more or less correct."

AEK showed signs they might win the first leg by a big margin with a Michael Dixon 3-pointer stretching their advantage to 27-16 in the second quarter.

The visitors picked up the defensive intensity, however, and started to come back, with a 3-ball from Sergii Gladyr cutting the deficit to 30-28 just 2:12 from the end.

A Sakota 3-pointer would not long after give AEK a 33-30 lead, only for Jamal Shuler to answer immediately with a shot from the arc to tie again.

AEK took the curious decision to foul Amara Sy late in the half, with the Monaco player making both free-throws for a 35-34 lead at half-time.

"We could have won by more points but at the end of the day, we could have lost. What I asked of my players is that our goal must be to win both games." - Zdovc

Monaco went in front by as many as seven in the third quarter and appeared to be on the verge of opening up a big lead but they weren't able to step on the accelerator, either.

In the fourth quarter, Monaco's Yakuba Ouattara had one of the plays of the season, dribbling right into the lane on a fast break and taking off to dunk with two hands for a 58-53 lead.

After AEK twice came back to pull level with a 3-pointer from Roko Ukic to make it 58-58, and an Ukic lay-up to knot the game at 60-60, the 25-year-old Ouattara struck again, this time with a rim-rocking dunk off an alley-oop pass from Shuler. Fouled on the play, he made the free-throws for a 63-60 Monaco advantage.

AEK eventually pulled level and went in front by four after first Giannoulis Larentzakis and then Michael Dixon sank a pair of free-throws for a 69-65 lead inside the last minute.

Shuler's 3-pointer on Monaco's last possession, however, trimmed the deficit to a single point and AEK's Donald McGrath failed to score on a drive before the end.

The contest had been hard fought and Monaco coach Zvezdan Mitrovic said it was a pity that two teams with aspirations of going far in the tournament had had to meet so early in the Play-Offs.

"Unfortunately we meet AEK and I think a bit early because I think both teams deserve to the go to the next round," Mitrovic said.

"It was a great atmosphere, great fans. I really enjoyed tonight's game. About the game, it's only the first half, equal minus 1, but we expect in Monaco the same type of game, the same tough game." 

While it seemed that Monaco may have the advantage since they lost by just a single point and can now play at home where no opponent has beaten them in the Basketball Champions League, Zdovc was not bothered by the margin of victory.

"We could have won by more points but at the end of the day, we could have lost," he said. "What I asked of my players is that our goal must be to win both games.

"We won the first and now we must go there and win the second win. This was the first half. But it will not be easy."

The players of both teams looked as if they had been in a real battle by the final buzzer.

"Today was the first half," said Australia international Brad Newley, a recent addition to the AEK roster who played in his second Basketball Champions League game.

"We played tough for 40 minutes and so did they. We've given ourselves a chance to go to Monaco and play our best."