Barcelona stormed into the Euroleague last eight with a 93-73 win over Fenerbahce in what was a slick and professional masterclass.

Ante Tomic led five Barca players in double figures with 19 points as they took charge from the second quarter onwards and a 14-2 burst to start the third quarter extended the lead to double digits as the Catalan side left Fenerbahce in the distance.

Barcelona’s win extended their record-breaking Top 16 unbeaten spell to 21 games over two seasons as they move to 9-0 in Group E.

“We took this game very seriously and when we do that, everything goes well,” Tomic said. “We have a lot of work left to do and many games to play in the Euroleague.”

There is still work to do for Barcelona in order to advance to the Final Four in Milan, but head coach Xavi Pascual is pleased with the progress made and feels that beating what he considers a leading team in the Euroleague is a big step for his team.

“We are very happy with the win. I said I expected Fenerbahce to be one of the four teams that reach the playoffs in our group,” he said. I honestly think that a big part of this win in based on us doing well, not on Fenerbahce having a bad game. We did a lot of good things to win – defence, intensity, were quick in transition and shared the ball well; we finished the game with 23 assists.

“Olympiacos arrives next Friday, the reigning champion, and it will be a very difficult game. We will need Palau Blaugrana to help us because it is the win that brings the award of a playoffs spot.”

Nemanja Bjelica led Fenerbahce with 15 points as the Turkish side drops to 4-5.

Euroleague holders Olympiacos suffered a home defeat before they make the trip to Barcelona in the next Top clash. They lost 88-86 to surprise package EA7 Milano who played outstanding defence in the final minute to deny the Reds a win.

Keith Langford drained a triple in the final minute to give Milano an 85-81 lead which Olympiacos could not counter, despite their best efforts. Milano is an impressive 6-3 in Group E, while the champions, who were without Euroleague MVP Vassilis Spanoulis drop to 4-5.

“I feel proud of my players because they came back and showed their character, which was necessary to escape with such a great victory from Piraeus,” Milano coach Luca Banchi said. “In the last minutes we allowed our opponents to cut the margin and have the chance to win, but finally we did it and this is great for our confidence and our ambitions in the Euroleague.”

Langford dropped 20 for the Italian giants. Stratos Perperoglou led Olympiacos with a game-high 22 points.

CSKA Moscow edged Zalgiris Kaunas 88-86 in Kaunas in Group F thanks to a defensive stop by CSKA’s Aaron Jackson to stop Justin Dentmon from winning it for the hosts.

Jackson split free throws with 7.2 seconds left, leaving Zalgiris with a shot of an upset victory, but the American ensured CSKA stayed on course for qualification from Group F as they are now 8-1. Milos Teodosic led the Russians with 16 points. Zalgiris, who fall to 1-8 were paced by Martynas Pocius’ 20 points.

Partizan gave themselves a glimmer of hope as they thrashed Bayern Munich 70-55 in Belgrade.

The Serbian champions are now 2-7 as they move away from bottom spot but still find themselves off the pace. A 19-9 start set the tone for the win as the German side were never in this contest. Bayern, who dropped to 4-5 are tied for fourth spot.

Tarence Kinsey and Sasha Pavlovic both hit 21 points in the victory, with Nihad Djedovic responding with 12 for Bayern.

“We played like a team and this is a team win,” Kinsey said. “It’s a big win because we missed Bogdan Bogdanovic and Davis Bertans. This is the first time this season we played good defence all the way. We are growing from game to game.”

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