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The passion and drama of Euroleague Basketball was at the forefront in Top 16 Week 5 when with teams battling to clinch spots in the Quarterfinal Playoffs, five games were decided by 5 points or fewer. The end result was two team clinching first place in their groups, two more advancing to the best-of-three quarterfinals and many others staying alive to set up a potentially even more exciting Week 6 with do-or-die battles at nearly every corner as 11 teams fight for the last four spots. The only remaining undefeated team was also the first to win its group and clinch and home-court advantage in the playoffs. Tau Ceramica scored a 90-74 victory over Aris TT Bank to win Group E as Tiago Splitter came through with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Tau needed no help, but could still influence the second-place qualifier from Group E after Lietuvos Rytas rallied from double-digit fourth-quarter deficits to defeat Fenerbahce Ulker 87-84 in a thriller as Hollis Price scored 22. Fenerbahce can qualify next week by beating Tau at home or by hoping that Aris beats L. Rytas by fewer than 30 points. The defending champs prevented another team from winning its group with a narrow victory. Panathinaikos edged Montepaschi Siena 77-76 at the end of a back-and-forth battle. Mike Batiste scored 18 to lead the Greens, who will need to beat Partizan next week in Belgrade to move on. The Serbian champs will arrive for that game in good spirits after another big night from Nikola Pekovic helped Partizan beat Efes Pilsen 79-83 for its third straight win. Pekovic finished with 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Montepaschi can still secure first place in Group D by beating Efes Pilsen at home in the last remaining game. In arguably one of the most intense games of the evening, if not the season, Maccabi Elite defeated Real Madrid 100-103 in overtime as Terence Morris stepped up again with 23 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Morris and Yotam Halperin nailed crucial triples to help force overtime and veteran captain Derrick Sharp came on to ice the win with his free-throw shooting in the last minute of overtime. Maccabi advanced to the playoffs and can win Group F if it beats Zalgiris at home next week. In a surprisingly low-scoring affair, Olympiacos overcame Zalgiris Kaunas 52-61 to set up a head-to-head battle next week between the Reds and Madrid for the other Group F playoff ticket. Top 16 leading scorer Lynn Greer paced the Reds with 14. In Group G, CSKA Moscow overwhelmed visiting Unicaja 93-70 as Marcus Goree had 16 points and Matjaz Smodis 14. CSKA was assured first place and home-court advantage in the playoffs later, when Lottomatica Roma outlasted visiting Barcelona 68-63 as Erazem Lorbek scored 16 points and Roko-Leni Ukic downed a game-breaking layup. Group G's second spot will be decided next week when Barcelona hosts CSKA needing a victory to advance, or else the winner of Unicaja-Roma will do so.
 Panathinaikos held on to beat Montepaschi Siena 77-76 for its 16th straight Euroleague victory at the Athens Indoor Olympic Hall. Mike Batiste paced the winners with 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting, climbing to second place in the Top 16 field-goal shooting chart with a 73.8 success rate. It was the Greens' second 1-point home win this season.
Partizan Igokea ended Efes Pilsen's playoff hopes with a 79-83 road win, despite 7 three-pointers and a career-high 33 points from Scoonie Penn. Nikola Pekovic carried the Serbian champs with 22 points. Penn, who had never reached the 30-point mark in four Euroleague seasons before this one, has now done it twice in 10 games.
Tau Ceramica won its seventh straight home game and clinched home-court advantage in the Quarterfinal Playoffs by beating Aris TT Bank 90-74 at the Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria, Spain. The hosts ran away with the game in the second half thanks to 56 points from reserves. Tau’s top two scorers, Tiago Splitter with 18 and Pablo Prigioni with 16, both came off the bench. Prigioni also recorded 4 steals to give him 202 for his career, joining the exclusive four-man Euroleague Basketball 200-steal club, along with Theo Papaloukas (231), Gianluca Basile (217) and J.R. Holden (201).
Lietuvos Rytas edged Fenerbahce Ulker 87-84 to set up a thrilling finish to Group E, which could come down to a tiebreaker in Top 16, Week 6, with three teams still in the running for second place. Mindaugas Lukauskis made some big plays down the stretch and Hollis Price led an 11-for-20 three-point attack with 5 triples en route to a game-high 22 points. Kenan Bajramovic continued his Top 16 excellence, bringing his scoring average to 17.4 points per game – more than double his regular-season average.
In the city that will host the Final Four this spring, another chapter was written in one of the greatest rivalries in European club basketball history on the night when the most successful club ever honored its legends. Maccabi Elite saw off Real Madrid 100-103 in overtime thanks to another big night from Terence Morris – 23 points, 13 rebounds and 3 steals – who now leads the Top 16 in three-point shooting percentage (60%) after going 4 for 5 from downtown. Felipe Reyes, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Axel Hervelle, 20 and 11, led Madrid. The loss ended Madrid's 21-game unbeaten home run in European competition and marks Maccabi's first win at Madrid since November 1997. The only player from that 68-76 result still active is Derrick Sharp, who sealed this game with 6 late free throws in overtime.
Olympiacos won on the road for the second week in a row and remained in the fight for a Quarterfinal Playoff spot with a 52-61 win at Zalgiris Kaunas. Lynn Greer netted 14 for the Reds to remain the Top 16's leading scorer with 20.8 points per game. It was Zalgiris's worst offensive output ever in the Euroleague and the worst in any European competition since a 51-71 home loss against Austrian side UKJ Suba in the Saporta Cup in October 1996. Olympiacos’s defensive effort was its best since beating Union Olimpija 68-52 in March 2000.
 CSKA Moscow clinched first place in Group G and a spot in the Quarterfinal Playoffs by cruising past Unicaja 93-70 in the Russian capital. The win was CSKA’s 27th straight at home, the best active run and the second best in Euroleague history. Matjaz Smodis had his best performance since returning from injury, netting 14 points and 4 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. Unicaja, which missed power forward Marcus Haislip due to passport issues, was outrebounded 36-28.
Lottomatica Roma hung on to beat AXA FC Barcelona 68-63, avenging a 29-point loss two weeks ago in Barcelona. Roma joins a three-way race with Barca and Unicaja for the second ticket to the quarterfinals from its group. Roma won despite not having a single player with more than 1 assists and being outpointed by its opponents in index rating, 66-76. Erazem Lorbek led Roma with 16, while Roger Grimau netted 21 for Barcelona, matching his career-high set four seasons ago in a Top 16 game against Scavolini Pesaro.
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Euroleague.net
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