BELGRADE — Defeats in the penultimate round of the Euroleague basketball's preliminary group stage Friday left the competition's former winners Emporio Armani Milan and Partizan Belgrade staring at early elimination. Fenerbahce, which spent heavily last summer hoping to assemble a side capable of slugging it out with Europe's best, is also skating on thin ice after a 69-55 defeat at six-time winner Panathinaikos Athens. Milan was in the driving seat for three quarters of its home match against Zalgiris Kaunas but a poor final period cost it as it slipped to a 67-65 loss to the Lithuanian champion. “Once again we lost a game because of stupid little mistakes and it shows that we are not in control in clutch moments,” Milan coach Sergio Scariolo told the competition's official website (www.euroleague.net). “We're damned by our crucial mistakes which we made because of the big pressure, although we played against a big team with big players,” added Scariolo, who stepped down as Spain coach last week after winning two successive European titles and the 2012 Olympic silver medal with them. Milan needs to beat holder Olympiakos Piraeus away next week and hope that Spaniards Caja Laboral slips to an unlikely home defeat by Croatia's Euroleague debutants Cedevita Zagreb to advance into the second group stage of the competition. Partizan came close to upsetting Barcelona but plaudits from the visiting team's coach Xavi Pasqual was all they got from a rip-roaring contest in which the lead changed hands time and again in the cauldron of Belgrade's Pionir Arena. “Congratulations to Partizan fans for an excellent show and it is a kind of atmosphere that can't be seen anywhere else,” Pasqual said after Barca ground out a 68-67 overtime victory thanks to a block by Partizan's former center Nathan Jawai on the buzzer. “I think we were very good in the final period and overtime and this is a very important win for us.” Partizan must beat German side Bamberg to keep alive any hopes of progressing but even that may not be enough if Lithuanians Lietuvos Rytas beat Besiktas Istanbul away in their final game. Fenerbahce was also dragged into a complicated three-way battle for one of the last three remaining berths in the top 16 after it was soundly beaten 69-55 at Panathinaikos Athens, one of the 13 teams who had already booked their spots with games to spare. An excellent individual performance by former Panathinaikos forward Romain Sato, the game's top scorer with 20 points, was merely a flash in the pan for the Turkish side who must beat Italians Mapooro Cantu in their dogfight and hope that Olimpija Ljubljana lose at Real Madrid. — Reuters
