FIBA Basketball

    EUROLEAGUE – Reds upset Tau in Vitoria to clinch home-court advantage in last eight

    VITORIA (Euroleague) - Panagiotis Yannakis' Olympiacos were the big winners on the final night of Top 16 play in the Euroleague after winning on the road at Tau Ceramica. The former Greece coach led the Reds to an 88-80 triumph in Vitoria to beat the Copa del Rey winners to first place in Group E. Olympiacos jumped out to a 28-23 lead ...

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    VITORIA (Euroleague) - Panagiotis Yannakis' Olympiacos were the big winners on the final night of Top 16 play in the Euroleague after winning on the road at Tau Ceramica.

    The former Greece coach led the Reds to an 88-80 triumph in Vitoria to beat the Copa del Rey winners to first place in Group E.

    Olympiacos jumped out to a 28-23 lead by the end of the first quarter and extended that to 51-37 by half-time.

    The used the good start as a platform for victory.

    Croatia center Nikola Vujcic led a balanced Olympiacos attack with 17 points.

    Yannakis' team now takes on Real Madrid in the last eight.

    Defeat for Tau, the defending champions of Spain, means they face their ACB Rivals Barcelona.

    Tau coach Dusko Ivanovic had hard words for his players after the game.

    "This is a demonstration of what I’ve been saying all season long: You don’t win do-or-die games with offense, but with defense," Ivanovic said.

    "We must learn that if we want to have a chance to win something, we must change our mentality and play aggressive defense.

    "We took the first option in our offense too many times. We had no patience, so it takes no big effort for the other team’s defense to stop us."

    A turnaround jump shot at the buzzer by Spain’s Raul Lopez lifted Real Madrid to an 83-82 win over Alba Berlin.

    Lopez said: "This team is able to beat any opponent, any time. We are going to Athens (to face Olympiacos) convinced of our chances."

    Real (5-1) weren't able to capitalize on the victory with a first-place finish In Group F because Barcelona also finished 5-1 with a 90-74 triumph at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

    Barcelona won the goal differential tie-breaker between the two sides.

    The best-of-five Quarter-Finals tip off on March 24.

    Mike Batiste of Panathinaikos, meanwhile, was voted Top 16 Week 6 MVP after scoring 22 points in the Greens' overtime win at home against Unicaja Malaga.

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