Olympiacos defeated Montepaschi Siena 68-67 and moved level with the Italian side 7-4 in Group F as the Euroleague Top 16 enters its 11th week.

Kostas Papanikolaou and Kostas Sloukas paced the winners with 11 points as the reigning Euroleague holders, who were without Georgios Printezis move to second place, tied with Siena who were led by Matt Janning and Kristjan Kangur, both with 14 points.

Stifling defence from the hosts in the third gave them a 53-44 lead but a 12-1 run from Olympiacos put them 56-54 ahead. The Italian champions responded until Vassilis Spanoulis stepped up to convert a vital three-point play that put the Reds 68-61 to the good. They were made to sweat out the last few minutes however, but Montepaschi were unable to put up a shot as the buzzer sounded.

“It was a tough game. It was the step that we wanted in the Top 16,” Olympiacos coach Georgios Bartzokas said.

“We want to go as far as we can in this competition and it was a very crucial win in this very difficult court. Our defence in the third and fourth quarters was excellent. We lost Printezis in practice and that means changing something in our way to play, but we took a very important win.”

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Anadolu Efes needed overtime to see off Brose Baskets, but they got the job done 89-86 in Istanbul.

Jordan Farmar led the way with 29 points as they improve to 9-2 in Group E with either a victory or a Unicaja Malaga loss on Friday enough to secure a last eight birth.

Bamberg, who had the chance to win in regulation but Casey Jacobsen missed the lay-up remain winless in the group. Bostjan Nachbar had 24 for the German champions.

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30 points from Ricky Hickman, including a monster throw down in the last 30 seconds ensured Maccabi Electra would outlast a stubborn BC Khimki 80-79 in Tel Aviv.

With this result, both teams are now at 6-5 in Group F with three games left. Despite defeat, it was a well balanced scoring attack from the Russians who had five players in double digits, led by Vitaly Fridzon’s 16.

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Caja Laboral broke the trend of close game and last minute finishes as they thrashed Fenerbahce 87-67.

Tibor Pleiss led the way with 14 points and six rebounds for the winners, as they improved to 6-5 and within one win of second place with three games to play.  Fenerbahce were led by Bo McCalebb’s 16 points as they drop to 2-9.

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