Aleksandar Rasic Partizan celebrates

The next-to-last week of action in the Euroleague regular season rewarded three teams with trips to the Top 16 and another as the first group winner while sending a third team to elimination. The teams that broke through to the next round in Week 9 did so in different ways. Needing to win by 23 points, a seemingly unthinkable possibility when star Aleks Maric was injured early in the game, Partizan routed Lietuvos Rytas 97-67 to reach the Top 16 as Slavko Vranes and Aleksandar Rasic starred. Two other teams advanced before even playing this week due to other teams' victories - old standby Maccabi and rookie Khimki - but both made good with wins of their own. Also getting help was Olympiacos, whose 85-93 overtime road win at Efes Pilsen was good enough to clinch first place after a subsequent upset, Orleans over Unicaja 72-88 in Malaga. Only one of 10 teams still eligible for five open Top 16 spots won that status this week: Zalgiris, which topped Cibona 68-61 in head coach Ramunas Butautas's debut. The rest of Week 8 saw favorites like Caja Laboral, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid and Montepaschi Siena avoid getting surprised at home, while Barcelona and CSKA did the same on the road. The bottom line is that in Week 10 there will be five more Top 16 places decided among 10 teams still bidding for them and three group titles up for grabs. Rarely has so much been left to decide on the last day of the regular season.