Basketball-Maccabi join Barcelona in Euroleague Final Four

April 23 (Reuters) - Former Euroleague winners Maccabi Tel Aviv reached the competition's May 16-18 Final Four after a 86-66 home win over Emporio Armani Milan on Wednesday completed a 3-1 victory in their best-of-five quarter-final series. Maccabi, who have four Euroleague titles, joined Barcelona in the showpiece event in Milan after the Spanish giants earlier booked their ticket with a 3-0 sweep of Galatasaray. In the day's other matches, holders Olympiakos Piraeus beat Real Madrid 71-62 and their cross-town rivals Panathinaikos edged CSKA Moscow 73-72 in overtime to even the series at 2-2 and force tiebreakers on Friday. American Ricky Hickman and Israeli Alex Tyus scored 16 points each and the latter also collected nine rebounds as Maccabi outscored Milan 51-23 in the second half in front of a fervent home crowd. Shooting guard Keith Langford was a lone beacon of light for the visitors with a game-high 28 points but Milan ultimately paid the price for losing the opening game of the series when they squandered a last-minute lead. CSKA forward Vitaly Fridzon forced overtime in Athens when he hit an off-balance jumpshot on the buzzer but Panathinaikos came out on top in the error-strewn additional five minutes after former NBA stalwart Sonny Weems missed a free throw with two seconds remaining. Olympiakos trailed Real 2-0 after the opening two games in Madrid and following Monday's dramatic 78-76 win in Game 3, they will head back to the Spanish capital for the decisive clash in good stead after a strong final quarter on Wednesday allowed them to level the series. Five Olympiakos players ended in double scoring digits, with Bryant Dunston and Matthew Lojeski leading the way on 13 points each. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic in Belgrade; Editing by Justin Palmer)