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Week 12 started with only five more spots in the Top 16 free for the taking, and when the dust settled, only two of them were seized - and one of those by a losing team. The week's only winning team to advance was Efes Pilsen, which rallied to beat Lietuvos Rytas 90-84 behind 21 points from Scoonie Penn. The result helped Efes as much as it hurt L. Rytas, whose formerly exclusive hold on first place in Group B is now shared by Unicaja, which downed winless Le Mans 87-68, and by Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, a 76-81 victor at Cibona. The latter result produced the second Top 16 qualifier of the week, but it was not the winning team, but rather Aris TT Bank, which despite its 77-69 road loss at Armani Jeans Milano was able to advance when Cibona lost, too. One team that could have qualified with or without help couldn't manage either way: Fenerbahce Ulker lost at Brose Baskets Bamberg 81-73 one night after Lottomatica Roma outlasted Partizan 88-87 in an overtime thriller. A loss by Roma would have put Fenerbahce through, but now they must visit Panathinaikos, whose 102-78 blowout of Chorale Roanne left the reigning champs a victory shy of clinching first place in Group C. Second place in Group C now belongs to Real Madrid, which won its derby with Barcelona 82-79. Second place in Group A, however, is being shared by two Week 12 winners: Montepaschi, after it topped host Virtus VidiVici 64-77, and Tau Ceramica, once it downed Union Olimpija 89-74. Zalgiris and Olympiacos, which lost at Prokom Trefl Sopot 63-59, now share fourth place in Group A. A total of three Top 16 places are still undecided, two in Group C - which will be fought for among Roma, Fenerbahce and Partizan - and the best sixth-place team overall, for which those three and Cibona are in the running still, although Chorale, Milano, Olimpija and Prokom are not yet eliminated.
CSKA Moscow practically clinched first place in Group A when it crushed host Zalgiris Kaunas 60-88. It was the Russian champs fifth straight win over Zalgiris and ended the Lithuanian champs five-game Euroleague winning streak. CSKA used a well-balanced scoring attack – Ramunas Siskauskas scored 20 points, Trajan Langdon 19 and David Andersen had 18 plus 9 rebounds – and a solid defensive effort by holding Euroleague Basketball’s all-time leading scorer Marcus Brown to just 5 points.
Milan Gurovic and Tomas Van den Spiegel shined bright to lead Prokom Trefl to a stunning 63-59 victory over Olympiacos Piraeus. The Reds demolished the Polish champs 109-65 earlier this season, but Prokom had its revenge by damaging Olympiacos’s hopes for good Top 16 seeding. Gurovic finished with a Euroleague career-high 28 and Van den Spiegel added 15 points, 12 rebounds and a strong defensive effort in limiting Olympiacos to a season-low in points.
Tau Ceramica recorded its sixth consecutive win over Union Olimpija, 89-74 at Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria, Spain. The only time that Olimpija has ever beaten Tau was in the 1994 Saporta Cup final. After seeing its Euroleague-record 30-game home-court winning streak snapped earlier this season, Tau is back on track, now having won three in a row at home. Mirza Teletovic led Tau with 18 points.
Montepaschi Siena continued its dominance over Virtus VidiVici Bologna with a 64-77 win in an all-Italian showdown. The victory ran Montepaschi’s winning streak against Virtus to eight games, including a sweep in last season’s Italian League finals. Romain Sato paced the winners with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 5 steals en route to a share of Week 12 MVP honors. The Italian champs also welcomed Ksistof Lavrinovic back after missing two games with injuries.
Efes Pilsen swept the regular-season series from Lietuvos Rytas with a 90-84 win in Istanbul. Head coach David Blatt’s side rejoined the race for the top spots in Group B by beating what he called “the best team in our group.” Efes is now only one win behind a trio of teams tied for first place in the group. Scoonie Penn led the winners with 21 points and Andre Hutson added 20, marking the first time in four games that Efes top two scorers were not Kenny Gregory and Penn, Gregory finished with 12 points, his lowest tally since Week 7.
Maccabi Elite blew a 20-point halftime lead, but had the right stuff down the stretch to beat Cibona 76-81 in Zagreb. The Israeli champs outscored Cibona 4-27 in the second period, but it seemed as if the spirit of the late Drazen Petrovic, who among others was honored as part of Euroleague Basketball’s 50 Years of European Club Basketball celebration before the game, lifted the Croatian champs on a second-half shooting spree that saw them take a slim fourth quarter lead. However a key basket by Terence Morris with 10.6 seconds remaining and 2 clutch Yotam Halperim free throws sealed the win. Maccabi has now won 9 of its last 11 games against Cibona dating back to the mid 1990s.
Unicaja blasted Le Mans 87-68, sending the visitors to their 13 consecutive Euroleague defeat dating back to last season. If Le Mans fails to record a victory in its remaining two games, it will join the London Towers with the dubious distinction of being the only clubs to finish a Euroleague Basketball 14-game regular season winless. Carlos Cabezas scored 14 to lead a well-balanced Unicaja attack that featured eight players with at least 7 points.
Armani Jeans star forward Danilo Gallinari had arguably his most impressive performance yet with a pair of clutch three-pointers in the last minute-and-a-half to lead Milano over Aris TT Banl 77-69. Gallinari scored 16 second-half points en route to matching his season-high of 20. It snapped a four-game losing streak and was Milano’s first Euroleague home win since downing Maccabi Elite 94-71 in January 2006.
Panathinaikos moved a step closer to clinching first place in Group C by pasting Chorale Roanne 102-78 at the Athens Indoor Olympic Hall. It was the Greens’ 12th consecutive Euroleague win at OAKA. Kostas Tsartsaris led the way with 19 points and Dimitrios Diamantidis had another solid all-around performance with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocked shots for the reigning champs, who are 10-0 against French opponents since losing to Cholet Basket in February 2000. Panathinaikos went on to win the Euroleague that season.
Real Madrid climbed to second place in Group C by downing archrival AXA FC Barcelona 82-79 in front of 13,000 fans in the Spanish capital. Felipe Reyes and Louis Bullock led the winners with 14 points apiece. Reyes also had 12 rebounds. The game marked the eighth straight time that the home team won a European contest between these age old rivals.
 Roko-Leni Ukic's flying layup with 33 seconds left in overtime gave Lottomatica Roma a thrilling 88-87 victory over Partizan Igokea and exclusive hold on the all-important fifth place in Group C. Ukic was one of three Romans to score at least 20 points, along with Erazem Lorbek and Allan Ray. Roma has now won four of its last five games after starting the season 1-6.
Brose Baskets snapped a five-game losing streak with an 81-73 victory over Fenerbahce Ulker at the Jako Arena in Bamberg, Germany. Darren Fenn scored 21 points to lead the German champs. Fenn has seen two centers come and go in front of him in the rotation, but has remained steady, averaging 10.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in less than 25 minutes per game this season.
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Euroleague.net
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