The penultimate round of the 2017-18 7DAYS EuroCup Top 16 saw two more teams march into the quarterfinals. On Tuesday, Herbalife Gran Canaria won in Berlin to advance to the quarterfinals for the fourth season running. Wednesday witnessed FC Bayern Munich routing Fiat Turin to win its group and reach the round of eight for the third straight season. Wednesday’s results also set in stone two quarterfinals pairings: Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar will meet Gran Canaria and Darussafaka Istanbul will take on Buducnost VOLI Podgorica. The three remaining quarterfinals tickets will be decided in Round 6, which is when the other two quarterfinals pairings will be known.

GROUP E

Herbalife Gran Canaria booked its ticket for the quarterfinals by knocking off ALBA Berlin 72-75 on Tuesday in the German capital. Marcus Eriksson nailed 5 three-pointers in scoring a team-high 20 points for Gran Canaria while Gal Mekel scored his team’s final 8 points and finished with 12 points and 5 assists for Gran Canaria, which improved to 3-2 to secure a berth in the final eight for the fourth consecutive season. ALBA got 12 points from Stefan Peno in the loss, which dropped the German side to 1-4 in the group and eliminated it from reaching the next phase. Darussafaka Istanbul locked up first place by downing cross-town rival Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul 77-63 at home on Wednesday. Darussafaka improved to 5-0 in the standings and thus secured home-court advantage for the quarterfinals. It also remains in the hunt for the best Top 16 record overall, which would also give the club home-court advantage in any series it plays after that. Galatasaray dropped to 1-4. James Bell led the winners with 17 points, Furkan Aldemir amassed 9 points and 14 rebounds and Scottie Wilbekin scored 9 points, delivered 9 assists and collected 4 steals for Darussafaka. DaJuan Summers paced Galatasaray with 18 points. The game was tied, 33-33, at halftime and a jump hook by Richard Hendrix gave Galatasaray a 33-39 lead soon after the break. However JaJuan Johnson took over after that, leading a 15-3 run that gave Darussafaka the lead for good.

GROUP F

FC Bayern Munich used a 24-0 third-quarter run to pull away from Fiat Turin en route to a 107-81 victory, which clinched a spot in the quarterfinals and first place in Group F for the winners. Danilo Barthel dominated in his first start in place of the injured Milan Macvan; he tied his career highs with 21 points and 8 rebounds, established career bests with 5 assists, 3 blocks and a performance index rating of 42 and set a club record with 6 offensive rebounds as Bayern improved to 4-1. Fiat fell to 2-3 and will face off against Zenit St. Petersburg next week with a quarterfinals berth at stake. Fiat must win by more than 11 points to advance, otherwise Zenit takes the ticket to the next phase. Bayern dominated the glass 43-20 and set a club record by making 70% of its two-point shots (28 of 40). Lamar Patterson scored a career-high 27 points for Fiat. Zenit set a club record for points scored and two-point shots made in a 113-100 win over visiting Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius. Zenit bumped its record to 3-2 and eliminated Rytas, which dropped to 1-4. Zenit took control early and led by as many as 24 points in the third quarter, before allowing the visitors to come within 8 points in the final 4 minutes. But Kyle Kuric and Malcolm Griffin made sure Rytas never came closer. Zenit’s 113 points and 35 two-point shots made were club records, as were the 11 blocked shots and 31 free throws made by Rytas. Kuric led six Zenit scorers in double figures with 20 points and Malcolm Griffin recorded 17 points and 8 assists in his EuroCup debut. Loukas Mavrokefalidis had 22 points and 9 rebounds for Rytas.

GROUP G

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar stormed from behind in the final quarter on Wednesday to defeat visiting Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 77-66 and clinch first place in Group G. Both teams had already advanced to the quarterfinals, but Lokomotiv kept its undefeated season going and at 5-0 in the group will finish first, while Buducnost fell to 3-2 and will now finish second. Buducnost led 48-56 after 30 minutes, whereupon Lokomotiv shed its offensive chains and busted out for a 21-2 run to open the fourth quarter and take the victory. Frank Elegar led the winners with 16 points. Dimitry Kulagin scored 9 of his 14 in those last 10 minutes, which Lokomotiv won 29-10, topping its total for the second and third quarters combined. In a clash of the group’s already-eliminated teams, Dolomiti Eneriga Trento edged Cedevita Zagreb on the road 77-81. Trento took its record to 2-3 and will finish third in the standings, while Cedevita remained winless at 0-5. Trento led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter behind Ojars Silins, before Filip Kruslin led Cedevita’s fourth-quarter rally. Trento prevailed in the end behind 21 points from Yannick Franke and 16 from Silins, of which 14 came in the third quarter. Kruslin netted 21 points for Cedevita.

GROUP H

UNICS Kazan needed overtime to survive a do-or-die battle, but managed to edge ASVEL Villeurbanne 77-83 at the Astroballe on Wednesday. UNICS would have been eliminated with a loss, but after this win, it will qualify if it beats Limoges CSP at home next week. ASVEL and UNICS have 3-2 records in Group H, just like Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia. Jamar Smith led the winners with 26 points and Quino Colom added 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. ASVEL led 65-62 with less than two minutes left in regulation, but Smith stepped up with 7 points in crunch time to send the game to overtime at 69-69, which is when Colom and Melvin Ejim took over to lead UNICS to the win it needed to remain alive. . John Roberson paced ASVEL with 17 points. Limoges CSP rallied for its first win of the Top 16, an 80-71 come-from-behind victory over Reggio Emilia on Tuesday. Down 10 in the second quarter, Limoges rallied to trail by only 4 at halftime and Dru Joyce erupted with 15 third-quarter points as the hosts stormed ahead for good. Joyce finished with 17 points on 3-of-4 three-point shooting for the winners. Despite the victory, Limoges remains last in the group with a 1-4 record. The competition’s leading scorer, Amedeo Della Valle, paced Reggio Emilia with 18 points.

Source: EuroCup