EUROLEAGUE – Valencia, Caja Laboral and Panathinaikos join the quarter-final party

VALENCIA (Euroleague) - The three remaining Euroleague quarter-final spots were snapped up by Power Electronics Valencia, Caja Laboral and Panathinaikos on Thursday night.

All three teams won games to join defending champions Regal Barcelona, Real Madrid, Olympiacos, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Montepaschi Siena in the last eight.

At a sold-out La Fonteta in Valencia, the hosts had to beat Fenerbahce Ulker by three points to progress and did even better, prevailing 82-68.

Adding spice to the encounter was that Neven Spahija, who coached Valencia to Eurocup glory one year ago, left the team after the 2009-10 campaign to coach Fener.

He had guided the Turkish giants to three consecutive victories at the beginning of the Top 16, including a 75-73 triumph over Valencia on January 27 at the Sinan Erdem Dome, but after a narrow overtime defeat at BC Zalgiris, Fener crashed to a heavy defeat at home to Olympiacos.

Power Electronics, who lost captain and star player Victor Claver to a fractured metatarsal last week, got contributions from 10 players on Thursday, including 15 points apiece from Robertas Javtokas and Nando De Colo and 14 from Dusko Savanovic.

Valencia point guard Omar Cook had game highs in assists (11) and steals (five) and also scored six points to finish with a ranking of 20 - the highest of the Valencia players.

Fener, who lost veteran big man Mirsad Turkcan to injury last month, got an inspirational effort from Emir Preldzic but his 20 points and game-high ranking of 25 wasn't enough.

The appearance of Valencia in the quarter-finals for the first time is a surprise for nearly everyone because they had to scratch and claw to fight back from a 1-4 start in the competition just to reach the Top 16.

They have now rebounded from a 1-3 start in the Top 16 to advance and will take on Real Madrid in a best-of-five quarter-final series, with the first two to be played on March 22 and 24 in Madrid before Valencia host Game 3 on March 29.

Valencia's players remained on the court for 15 minutes after the final buzzer to celebrate, and coach Svetislav Pesic walked around the arena thanking fans for their support.

In the triumph over Fener, Valencia hit nine of 18 shots from behind the arc, including a two-of-six effort from Savanovic.

He had both of his in the first half when he led all scorers with 12 points.

Rafa Martinez had just two points through the first three quarters but drilled his two three-balls in the fourth quarter and finished with eight points.

"This has been a great win," Martinez said to FIBA.com.

"We played a fantastic game and now we're looking ahead to the series against Real Madrid.

"Real Madrid have the home-court advantage and they play very well at home.

"But why not?

"I think we have a good team that can measure up to the team against Real Madrid and we can win here."

Madrid edged Valencia in the ACB before La Taronja made a coaching change in November, replacing Manuel Hussein with Svetislav Pesic.

Real then scraped a narrow come-from-behind victory against them in the Copa del Rey semi-finals.

Valencia beat Madrid at La Fonteta on February 19, 59-52.

Madrid suffered their first Top 16 defeat at home on Thursday, losing to Montepaschi Siena 95-77 in a game that had no ramifications.

Mens Sana improved to 4-2 with the win and finished second in Group G.

Panathinaikos needed to prevail at Unicaja Malaga to be assured of a spot in the last eight and they did so in convincing fashion, 77-61.

The Greens led 38-33 at half-time and then pulled away in the second half, getting 15 points, three assists and eight rebounds from Dimitris Diamantidis.

Drew Nicholas led Pana in scoring with 18 points.

The victory wasn’t enough for Panathinaikos to clinch first place in Group E, however, an honor that went to Caja Laboral when then prevailed 77-68 at Lietuvos Rytas.

Caja Laboral got a big lift from Mirza Teletovic, who was a big uncertainty before the game after being diagnosed with patellar tendinitis, also known as jumper’s knee.

He played 28 minutes and scored 12 points while the player of the game was easily Caja Laboral’s Fernando San Emeterio.

The Spain international made six of eight shots from the floor, including two of two from long range, and five of six free-throws en route to 19 points.

San Emeterio also corralled 12 rebounds.

Croatian center Stanko Barac followed up his ACB Player of the Week performance with 13 points and six rebounds for Caja Laboral.

The Spanish club and Panathinaikos split their two encounters but the former had a better goal differential in the two meetings and finished top of the group.

In other games, Efes Pilsen lost at home to Partizan Belgrade, 67-65, in a battle of two teams that had been eliminated from quarter-final contention.

Olympiacos prevailed 78-64 at home over Zalgiris Kaunas, Lottomatica Roma won 82-69 against visiting Maccabi and Union Olimpija fell 76-58 at Barcelona.

FIBA