EuroLeague - Round-up: Last eight decided

Eurosport - Thu, 20 Mar 20:38:00 2008

A look at how the the final Top 16 gameweek panned out, with Real Madrid and defending champions Panathinaikos both knocked out.

BASKETBALL 2007-2008 EuroLeague Olympiacos-Real Madrid Louis Bullock - 0

GROUP F

Olympiacos 72-63 Real Madrid

Olympiacos snatched second place in Group F from Real Madrid thanks to a 72-63 victory over Real Madrid in front of a sell-out ground in Athens.

Panagiotis Vassilopoulos led the Greek with 14 points and six rebounds in a nervy contest that was only wrapped up in the final quarter as Real actually led in the early stages of the fourth quarter.

Next up for Olympiacos will be a clash with CSKA Moscow while Madrid's chances of playing the final in their home city are over.

Maccabi Tel Aviv 80-66 Zalgiris Kaunas

Maccabi wrapped up top spot in the group and home court advantage in the quarter-finals with a 88-66 win over Lithuanian side Zalgiris Kaunas.

Yotam Halperin (17 points) and Terence Morris (11 points, seven rebounds) were the key men for the Israelis who play Barcelona in the last eight.

GROUP G

AXA FC Barcelona 64-62 CSKA Moscow

J. R. Holden missed a corner triple at the buzzer for CSKA Moscow as they just failed to dump Barcelona out of this year's competition.

The Basque's survived a nervy contest with Jaka Lakovic top scoring with 14 points, as they had a one-point advantage in the head-to-head record with Spanish rivals Unicaja; CSKA had already wrapped up the group.

Unicaja 79-58 Roma

Barcelona's win over CSKA meant it was a heartbreaking night for Unicaja despite a 79-58 win in Malaga.

Jiri Welsch and Terrel Castle led the winners with 15 points each, while Carlos Jimenez added a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds

Played Wednesday

GROUP D

Partizan Igokea 82-73 Panathinaikos

There will be a new Euroleague champion this season after Partizan Igokea knocked out holders Panathinaikos in only their second time in the Top 16.

Milt Palacio scored 24 points for Partizan, while Dusan Kecman added 16 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists to help set up a play-off match against Fenerbahce.

Montepaschi Siena 80-67 Efes Pilsen

Siena ended the Top 16 phase as Group D winners after beating Pilsen, earning them home-court advantage in the upcoming quarter-final play-off tie.

Romain Sato led the way with 25 points, missing just one of five three-pointers, with Terrell McIntyre adding 14 and 7 assists. Ben Eze and Bootsy Thornton each had 10 points.

GROUP E

Fenerbahce Ulker 75-59 Tau Ceramica

The Turkish champions booked their place in the play-offs with a convincing win over Tau Ceramica, the only defeat the Spanish side have suffered in the Top 16 stage.

Willie Solomon matched his season-high with 28 points for Fenerbahce, incuding five three-pointers out of six. Tau were already confirmed as Group E winners before the trip to Turkey.

Aris TT Bank 83-74 Lietuvos Rytas

This match was rendered a dead rubber due to the defeat of Tau Ceramica by fenerbahce, but Aris went out on a high.

Jeremiah Massey stormed the match with 28 points and 12 rebounds, while Darius Washington and Savvas Iliadis both posted season-high scores - 18 and 13 points respectively.

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