Omar Cook, Unicaja 16 points vs. Lietuvos Rytas

The halfway point of the regular season arrived at the end of Week 5 with plenty of evidence that many teams are ready for a life-or-death battle in the last five games, too. Only two teams were able to make it this far undefeated, while two others shed their winless status in Week 5, living to fight another day. In between them, several teams made down payments on a later opportunity to reach the Top 16. The big winners, without doubt, were a pair of Spanish powers. Regal FC Barcelona rode into Siena to hand Montepaschi a big first loss, 65-84, as Boni Ndong had 19 points in 15 minutes, Ricky Rubio frustrated the hosts and Pete Mickeal did it all. Barcelona now leads Group A at 5-0, but no first-place team enjoys a bigger lead in victories than Group B's unbeaten leader, Unicaja, which outlasted Lietuvos Rytas 91-84 as Omar Cook and Joel Freeland combined for 31 points. The next big heroics of the week belonged to a familiar team, Partizan, which upset Olympiacos in Group B behind a 23-point, 15-rebound, 5-steal show by newcomer Aleks Maric, not to mention 25 points by Aleksandar Rasic. Partizan kept pace with home winner Efes in what is looking to be a great Group B race. Kudos also went to CSKA, whose big 67-71 road win at Caja Laboral featured Ramunas Siskauskas busting out for 24 points. It was also the week of the last-place teams, however, as previously winless Union Olimpija crushed a Group C co-leader, Lottomatica Roma, as Sani Becirovic starred, just as Asvel stunned Cibona with 15-point fourth-quarter comeback in Group A. In the same group, another big move was made by Fenerbahce Ulker, winning away at Zalgiris to put two victories between them. All of which left Group D with its tri-leaders - Panathinaikos, for whom Mike Batiste returned from injury to score 25, Khimki Moscow Region and Real Madrid - all at 4-1, while the rest of the group is at 1-4. MORE