AS Monaco will make a Final Four debut in just its second EuroLeague season after outlasting Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 97-86 in Game 5 to win their back-and-forth series 3-2. Monaco advances to meet Olympiacos Piraeus in the semifinals on Friday, May 19 in Kaunas. Alpha Diallo detonated a dunk early in the fourth to make it 74-71 but Josh Nebo hit 2 free throws and Wade Baldwin exploded a dunk as Maccabi suddenly went ahead, 74-75. Bonzie Colson put back a miss but Chima Moneke detonated a dunk and Donta Hall kept Monaco close until Jordan Loyd could take it back with free throws, 80-79. Loyd drilled a triple with the next shot and again was fouled shooting a triple, with those free throws making it 86-79 with 3 minutes left. Wade Baldwin cut it to 90-85 from the arc with 2 minutes left, but Elie Okobo answered with a lane jumper and free throws to seal the victory. Mike James and Jordan Loyd led the winners with 21 points each while Baldwin led Maccabi with 26 points.
Live Blogs, Game 5: Monaco and Real to Final Four as home teams stay perfect!
Partizan 98-94 Real Madrid | End of 3Q
In a Game 5 that will go down in basketball history, Real Madrid rallied from 18 points behind in the second half to win 98-94 and take the last train to the Final Four in Kaunas with a 3-2 series victory over Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade. Real will face its archrival, FC Barcelona, in the semifinals on Friday, March 19. Alen Smailagic lifted the Partizan lead to 71-78 early in the fourth, but 5 points in a row by Sergio Rodriguez cut it to 76-81 and Mario Hezonja added a triple to make it 79-81. A second chance reverse by Rodriguez tied it up 81-81 with 6:16 left, completing a comeback from 18 down just 11 minutes earlier. Yam Madar fed Mathias Lessort for a dunk but Roriguez answered and assisted Sergio Llull a go-ahead triple and breakaway layup to suddenly make it 88-83. Kevin Punter banked in a triple that Hezonja matched at 91-86. Madar and Tavares split free throws before Sergio Llull drilled a "mandarina" at 95-87 with 2:50 to play. Rodriguez hit a layup but Dante Exum got 3 points back to make it 97-91 entering the final minute. Zach LeDay drilled a triple with 47.9 seconds left at 97-94 and Partizan got the ball back soon after. Punter missed form deep with 24 seconds left and Hezonja rebounded, but split his free throws at 98-94. Dzanan Musa led the winners with 20 points and Rodriguez scored11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter. Kevin Punter buried 28 points for Partizan to lead all scorers.
Olympiacos Piraeus 84-72 Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
Olympiacos beat visiting Fenerbahce 84-72 in Game 5 to clinch the series 3-2 and reach the Final Four in Kaunas, where the Greek side will play with the winner of the Monaco vs. Maccabi series, to be decided on Wednesday night.<br> Kostas Sloukas paced Olympiakos with 22 points, Sasha Vezenkov added 17 and Kostas Papanikolaou chipped in with 14, cancelling out a brave solo effort from Fenerbahce's Marko Guduric, who led all scorers with 26 points and tied Alexey Shved's EuroLeague playoff record for three-pointers made with 8 in 12 attempts. Olympiacos made a bright start and carved out a 13-4 lead early on. After Fenerbahce hit back to nose ahead 29-31, the hosts engineered a 15-0 run, the biggest in EuroLeague Game 5 history, to take the game by the scruff of the neck. From there, it never looked back. Fenerbahce tried as hard as it could to stay in touch, but the visitors could not contain Sloukas, who capped a fine personal series against Fenerbahce with a magnificent Game 5.