Partizan stayed alive in the Group C battle for the Top 16 after beating Olympiacos 81-71 in Belgrade on Thursday to move within one victory of coveted fifth place. Partizan raised its record to 4-7 while Olympiacos fell to 5-6. If they end up in a head-to-head tie, Partizan will prevail for having now beaten the Reds in both their games. Each team has 2 road games and 1 home game remaining. Partizan showed great motivation in matching its best defensive performance of the season and outrebounding Olympiacos 32-23. Partizan held the Reds to 34% accuracy on two-pointers while making 56% of its own shots inside the arc. Euroleague leading scorer Milos Vujanic had a lot to do with that as he matched his season average with 26 points. Nenad Krstic put up a big double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds and Frederic House finished the game with 14 points. Maurice Evans was Olympiacos's top scorer with 15, followed by DeMarco Johnson with 13 and Milan Tomic with 11.

Giorgios Giannouzakis opened the game with a triple for Olympiacos and later added 5 more points as the Reds led 8-19 after 5 minutes left. Partizan started a 9-0 run in the last minute of first period and finished it in the begining of the second period with a spectacular layup by House. Soon after that DeMarco Johnson committed his third foul and Krstic tied the score for the first time, 22-22. In the 13th minute, Krstic gave Partizan its first lead, 26-25. Olympiacos was losing all its rhythm now and with Vujanic getting going, Partizan took its run to 14-2 and the lead to 36-27 in the last minute of the second period. The hosts won that period 20-6 and left for the halftime break with a comfortable lead of 36-28.

Johnson tried to keep the Reds in the game with 6 points in the beginning of the third period, but House and Vujanic made triples from downtown for a 51-39 Partizan lead near the 35-minute mark. Then Nikos Boudouris tried a three-pointer to spur his team on, but Partizan was great on defense, led by House, who stole several balls and rebounded on both ends of the court. The result was 63-51 Partizan lead at the end of the third period. Olympiacos played with only one center after Ignacio De Miguel was fouled out with nearly 8 minutes left. The guests played faster to catch up and came to within 76-71 with 2 minutes to go. But Vujanic had a cool hand in the last minute and made 5 points from the foul line to preserve the victory and Partizan's ongoing chances to make a run at the Top 16.