Montepaschi Siena have booked their spot in the Euroleague Top 16 after beating Unicaja Malaga 91-72 at the Palaestra.
The Italians have now racked up five straight wins after starting the regular season with three straight defeats. They go to 5-3 in Group B while Unicaja suffers its first loss since the first week of action – they drop to 6-2 but are already through.
It was a well balanced scoring attack from Siena as five players scored in double digit numbers, led by David Moss’ 13 points. Benjamin Ortner added 12. Malaga were led by a game-high 29 points from Luka Zoric.
“The team wanted a special night to get the first goal of our season,” Siena coach Luca Banchi said. “We had a great approach and we played very well, dominating the game for the better part.”
Euroleague champions Olympiacos were impressive in beating Zalgiris for their fifth win on the bounce in Kaunas 77-63.
Despite the win, Zalgiris maintains its place atop of Group C ahead of the Reds via the head-to-head, Zalgiris beat Olympiacos in Greece by 18 points in the earlier rounds. Both sides have 6-2 records and are both through to the Top 16.
Vassilis Spanoulis led Olympiacos with 16 points and six assists while Rimas Kaukenas led the Lithuanian champions with 17 points.
Real Madrid needed a big fourth quarter to beat Fenerbahce 77-61 in the Spanish capital. The Turkish side need one win to qualify from Group A but fall to 4-4, Madrid are 6-2 and already through.
Fenerbahce led for the majority of the contest but a 19-3 burst in the latter stages of the third, overlapping to the fourth saw the Liga Endesa side home.
Nikola Mirotic led Madrid with 18 points with Marcus Slaughter adding 12 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Bojan Bogdanovic led Fenerbahce with 18 points.
Without Juan Carlos Navarro and Pete Mickeal, undefeated Barcelona continued on as they were ruthless away at Besiktas, winning 78-48.
Only two players hit double figure numbers, Joe Ingles led 8-0 Barca with 22 points, while Gasper Vidmar led the 4-4 Besiktas with 18; for both players, they were career-highs.
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