ESP - Barca into last eight

SOPOT (Euroleague) - Winterthur FC Barcelona had to wait for Panathinaikos to see off Efes Pilsen before being sure of their place in the Euroleague quarter-finals on Thursday night.

In the evening's first game, Barca travelled to Sopot, Poland. where they easily beat Prokom Trefl 77-59, but even with that win, they had to wait for the result from Istanbul before learning their fate.

Barca used some hot-shooting in the first half to build their advantage and put the game out of reach early on for Prokom, and they finished the second period on a 15-4 run that made it 45-32 at the break.

Prokom closed the gap by six in the third period, but offered little resistance thereafter, being outscored 18-7 in the final period.

Michalis Kakiouzis led the winners with 13 points while Jaka Lakovic added 12, all of them on three-pointers.

Spain international Juan Carlos Navarro added 10.

Donatas Slanina had a game-high 16 points and Rashid Atkins added 13 for Prokom.

All attention then turned to Turkey, where Barca needed Pana to remain unbeaten if they were to join them in the next-round.

The Greeks duly delivered with a 79-65 win over Efes who have not won a game in the Top 16.

However, it was not as straightforward as that result suggests, and Efes were leading 56-55 in the final quarter after Niksa Prkacin sank a free throw.

But Ramunas Siskauskas and Dimitrios Diamantidis both made three-pointers in a 9-0 burst that put Pana in control.

Sani Becirovic had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Greek side, while Siskauskas added 14 and Kostas Tsartsaris was one rebound short of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards.

Drew Nicholas led Efes with 21 points while Marcus Haislip had a double-double with 14 and 12 rebounds.

Dynamo Moscow secured a share of the lead in Group G by edging out Aris TT Bank 71-69 in Moscow.

In a close game, Aris led 65-64 with two minutes to go, but Dynamo went on a 7-1 run from which the visitors did not recover.

Antonis Fotsis did most of the damae with 28 points and 10 rebounds while center Lazaros Papadopoulos - who was presented with the Euroleague's January MVP award prior to the game - also had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Alex Scales had 25 points in vain for Aris.

Dynamo share that lead with Unicaja who edged out Benetton Treviso 79-76 for a road win in Italy.

Inaki De Miguel had five points in an 11-1 run that had put Unicaja 59-49 ahead in the third period, but Benetton responded with three pointers from Marco Mordente, Preston Shumpert and Marcus Goree helping them take a 71-68 lead inside the final four minutes.

Unicaja were back ahead going into the final minute but Shumpert sank a three-ball to tie the game 76-76 with 48 seconds to go.

Jiri Welsch, Carlos Cabezas and Berni Rodriguez then all sank free throws in the final seconds to give Unicaha the win.

Daniel Santiago led the Spaniards with 22 points and eight rebounds, while Welsch added 21.

Marcus Goree had 20 points for Benetton with Shumpert adding 17.

Ian Parker
FIBA