9th Day
Stadium: Bampergk
Tickets: 4000
The defeat to Roma proved to be just a bad parenthesis for Panathinaikos returning to winning, this time by beating Bamberg by 72-58. Zeliko Obradovic΄ team did not perform up to the highest standards but it was enough to get a comfortable win at the "Jako Arena". With tight defense and led by Sarunas Jasikevicius, PAO enforced their tempo right form the start and totally controlled the game. Despite the Germans΄ hard game, the referee calls and the fanatic atmosphere, PAO entered the game determined to show who the boss is. In the 5th PAO had a 9-5 lead and a 17-8 lead after the first period; the first half ended with PAO ahead by 12 (28-40); the margin had reached 14 points earlier (8-22, 11΄) with PAO fully enforcing their tempo and having more solutions in offense with Spanoulis, Batiste, and, of course, Saras. The second half did not allow for anything different with Panathinaikos having to face Bamberg΄s hard game. The improvement of Kennedy Winston made things easier as PAO maintained a lead of over 10 points. The Germans just managed to cut down the score to 45-53 in the 31st, but a quick run of 2-7 restored order (47-60, 35΄) essentially ending the game. Score by periods: 8-17, 28-40 (HT), 43-53, 58-72
