They will now play Caja Laboral in the quarter-finals, with the first of the five games to take place on March 23. In the Regular Season of Euroleague they beat the Spanish side twice, and with Caja Laboral recording an even 3-3 in the Top 16 there can be little doubt that CSKA start as favourites to progress to the Final Four.
Pashutin said: "I am glad that we finished Top 16 on a high note and I am thankful to all the guys for their approach. We had a chance to use wide rotation from the very beginning, everyone who was coming from the bench strengthened the game.
"The third quarter was a key to the game: we used two power forwards and Mensah-Bonsu was a hero of the night.
"I am glad for Pops who was just sensational. I hope that the difficult adaptation period is over for him and he will help us in future. Mensah-Bonsu is a great guy, he fits just right for the team and all the teammates are trying to help him. I am sure that's only a beginning.
"Now all our thoughts are about play-offs, and we will start our preparations as soon as we will know our opponent."
Meanwhile Joel Freeland and Robert Archibald's Unicaja bowed out of the competition, despite beating Asseco Prokom 82-63. Archibald started for the Spanish side and took 9 points while Freeland came off the bench to topscore with 17.
Unicaja lost out twice to Mensah-Bonsu's Russian outfit and were only able to record one other win, meaning their 2-4 record was not enough to progress from the Top 16.
Finally, several members of the Great Britain Standard Life women's team will be in action this weekend in Sheffield, at the BUCS Championships.
