EUROLEAGUE – International stars shine as Barca, Olympiacos reach Paris Final

PARIS (Euroleague) - Barcelona and Olympiacos will square off for the Euroleague title after claiming narrow wins at the Final Four in Paris on Friday night.

Ricky Rubio did a little bit of everything to help fire Barcelona past CSKA Moscow 64-54 while Linas Kleiza, Milos Teodosic and Josh Childress provided much of the inspiration for Olympiacos in an 83-80 overtime triumph against Partizan Belgrade.

Spain's Rubio, Lithuania's Kleiza and Serbia's Teodosic will all play at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey later this year.

In Barcelona's win, 19-year-old Rubio finished with 10 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals.

"I was nervous, but we fought for 40 minutes and finally got the win," said Rubio, the fifth overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft by Minnesota.

"It’s unbelievable. I can’t say anything because it would only spoil it…

"You have to feel it. They played very well, but we played as a team for 40 minutes."

Xavier Pascual, the Barcelona coach, talked about his playmaker.

"It's true that Ricky Rubio played well," Pascual said.

"For me, however, I like him the same whether he is just playing solid basketball like tonight or if he's making spectacular passes.

"But it has to be said he was very solid in playing in his first game of this type at the Final Four."

The ACB club struggled from long range, making just six of 24 of their attempts.

Rubio, however, drilled two of his three shots from behind the arc.

Barcelona's Copa del Rey MVP Fran Vazquez weighed in with 11 points and six rebounds and Juan Carlos Navarro added 10 points on four of 13 shooting from the floor.

Vazquez and Spain international Navarro are likely to be at the FIBA World Championship with Spain as well.

Barcelona opened up a 29-21 lead at half-time but went to the fourth quarter with a slender 47-41 advantage.

They held on over the last 10 minutes for an impressive win.

CSKA Moscow's Ramunas Siskauskas, who was this week named in Lithuania's preliminary squad for the FIBA World Championship despite having retired from the international game after the 2008 Olympics, finished with a game-high 19 points for CSKA.

Barcelona were 17 of 32 (53.1%) inside the arc compared to CSKA's 16 of 42 (38%).

Olympiacos edge Partizan

Partizan Belgrade's dream run in the Euroleague came to a frustrating against a star-studded Olympiacos.

The Reds got 19 points and 11 rebounds from Kleiza, while Teodosic and Childress each poured in 17 points in the 83-80 triumph.

Partizan, who shocked Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Quarter-Finals and entered the Final Four flying high after their thrilling Adriatic League title triumph over Cibona, led with 6.8 seconds remaining after a daring drive into the lane and lay-up by Bo McCalebb.

Teodosic attempted to put Olympiacos ahead with an attempt from long range but shot an air ball. However, Childress was there to snatch the out of the air and score to knot the contest and force the extra period.

Teodosic, Kleiza, Childress and Greece international Ioannis Bourousis each scored four points in the overtime to secure the win.

Some wondered if Teodosic had shot the ball or passed to Childress because he missed everything.

"You'll have to ask Milos if the last play in the fourth quarter was a pass or a shot," Childress said, "but I think he tried to shoot and the ball was a little short, so I was just there to catch and dunk it."

Partizan won their share of close games this season.

In the Adriatic League Final, Dusan Kecman banked in a shot from three-quarters length of the court with less than a second remaining in overtime to beat Cibona.

"Some of the games we won with luck," Partizan coach Dusko Vujosevic said.

"If we are conscious of that, we also have to be conscious of a lack of luck in this game.

"If Teodosic's shot had touched the rim, there wouldn't have been time for Olympiacos to get the rebound.

"We saw the experience that Childress and (Theo) Papaloukas showed and I think that my players have learned something tonight.

"In basketball, it's a fine line between good luck and bad, between happiness and sadness, and tonight we were on the wrong side of the line."

McCalebb, Australia's Aleks Maric and the Czech Republic's Jan Vesely had huge games for Partizan.

McCalebb, an all-Euroleague performer this season, finished with 21 points while Maric, a player that figures prominently in Australia's plans this summer at the FIBA World Championship, contributed 17 with eight boards, three assists and three steals.

The 20-year-old Vesely, one of the true young stars in European basketball, contributed 13 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

FIBA