Basketball - Barca, Olympiakos, CSKA reach Euroleague Top 16

By Zoran Milosavljevic BELGRADE, Nov 20 (Reuters) – - Former winners Barcelona, Olympiakos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow advanced to Euroleague basketball's second group stage with four games to spare after contrasting wins on Thursday. Barcelona cruised to a 99-77 win at Bayern Munich and CSKA blew away visiting Alba Berlin 95-66. Olympiakos edged Valencia 77-76 thanks to the last-minute exploits of playmaker Vassilis Spanoulis. All three can now fine-tune their form for the Top 16, featuring two sections of eight teams, while other giants like Real Madrid and holders Maccabi Teal Aviv still have unfinished business in the preliminary group stage. Spanoulis, who inspired Olympiakos to shock titles in 2012 and 2013, was instrumental again as he nailed a three-pointer to tie the score and then buried one of two free throws in front of a passionate Greek crowd. "We showed character, heart and a winning mentality but the performance wasn’t good," Olympiakos coach Giannis Sfairopulous told www.euroleague.net after his team overturned a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit. Elsewhere, France guard Nando De Colo amassed 22 points, including four three-pointers from as many attempts, and American playmaker Aaron Jackson added 18 as CSKA raced into a 40-15 lead against Alba. The German side fought hard to restore some respectability to the scoreline but were undone by superb long-range shooting as CSKA nailed 15 shots from behind the three-point arc while Alba managed just two. PERFECT START "We dominated the boards and had high shooting percentages so I can congratulate my team for playing good basketball and staying focussed from start to finish," said CSKA’s Greek coach Dimitris Itoudis. Barcelona also stretched their perfect start to six wins after Euroleague's all-time leading scorer Juan Carlos Navarro, Slovenian forward Bostjan Nachbar and Brazil guard Marcelinho Huertas each grabbed 15 points. The Catalan giants dominated in all departments, collecting five rebounds more than Bayern and dishing out 24 assists while pouring in 12 three-pointers against the home team’s three. Maccabi ground out a 79-73 win at French side Limoges thanks to a personal Euroleague record of 22 points by forward Sylven Landesberg who averaged 3.2 last season and 5.4 this term. Fenerbahce Istanbul held off a late rally by Emporio Armani Milan to beat the Italians 80-74 on the back of 14 points by guard Ricky Hickman and 12 from centre Semih Erden. On Friday, eight-times winners Real Madrid visit Zalgiris Kaunas and Galatasaray are at home to Red Star Belgrade. (Editing by Tony Jimenez)