Euroleague: Panathinaikos takes early game
Stephane Lasme puts up a floater against Alba Berlin in a Wed.’s Euroleague contest.
Euroleague Week 4 got an early start with a Wednesday contest between Group E clubs Alba Berlin and Panathinaikos Athens. The Greek squad headed up to Berlin and came home with a 73:79 win and a 3-1 Top 16 record. The loss drops Alba to 0-4. Panathinaikos continues to be without playmaker Dimitris Diamantidis on a consistent basis due to injuries.
After a 23-all tie in the first frame, the Greens established an early lead in the quarter. Alba got a 9:0 run later in the quarter, which was countered by a 0:8 run by the Greek club near the end of the second 10. They retired to the dressing rooms at the half with the guests up by six, 39:45.
Panathinaikos extended their lead to nine in the third, until Alba ordered up three singles and a triple to cut the gap to three late in the quarter and give the hosts hope. The Greens’ Jonas Maciulis put those thoughts to rest quickly with back-to-back three-pointers, to push the advantage back to the nine, 56:65, with 10 to play.
Roko Ukic gave the visitors an 11-point lead with a fast break layup, but the hosts countered with a 9:3 run to cut the lead to three, 65:68. James Gist connected on a jumper behind the arc and was followed up by a Maciulis triple to erase the ground Alba had made up in less than a minute.
Alba was able to pull to within four with under than a minute to play, but Marcus Banks dropped in a pair of key free tosses to push back to six. The hosts got four triples off with three offensive rebounds and a kick back out for another attempt before the buzzer sounded giving Panathinaikos the win and a 3-1 record.
The Greens’ Maciulis dropped in 28 points on just 10 field goal attempts, going 2 for 2 inside the and 6 for 8 from beyond, and adding 6 for 6 from the stripe. He also tallied a 27 PIR on the night. Ukic added 14 points and Gist dropped in 10.
Nihad Djedovic led Alba with 21 points and a PIR of 25, and Deon Thompson added 16.