With a victorious appearance, a quite impressive Panathinaikos opened its Euroleague season. In view of a full house, since its fans brought the house down by filling the OAKA stadium all the way to the rim, Panathinaikos overcame Zalgiris Kaunas by 78-51, giving a festive tone to the game.
Good foundations were set from minute 1, providing the key to prevalence. Already by the end of the first quarter, Zeljko Obradovic had made use of ten out of twelve players at hand, score at 26-11, only to climb further on, to a +24 lead (36-12, 12’30’’). The greens had their way, they enforced they rhythm and through playing hard on “D”, frequently found their way charging down the open field to an easy basket. Things weren’t so perky for Panathinaikos though later on, when in the 7 last minutes of the first half, Zalgiris eventually found much wished for solutions, thanks to rebounds and fast breaks. The Lithuanians managed to trim their opponents lead down to 8 at the end of the first half (38-30), having Lauren Woods getting 10 points and collecting 7 balls of the glass in a short period of time.
The third quarter was more proof of Panathinaikos’ unlimited methods to astound, if and when it keeps focused on its game, adds a supreme ball circulation and takes advantage of even the meekest possibility, presented to it to its leisure. So, this game just made apparent to all viewers, the numerous advantages that Panathinaikos has through the coordination of all of its players, grasping great leads and creating imaginative and very attractive plays, thus finding itself at 65-39, at the end of the third quarter.
The fans cheered on, thirsty for the Euroleague cup and the score soar to 70-41 (33’). Obradovic called Sakota off the bench at 35’ and a little while later Fragiskos Alvertis stepped on to the court, fans voices covering every other sound or even picture off the game, as they put into rhythm an ode to their team’s captain. The buzzer found the Panathinaikos team, as winner of the encounter, final score being 78-51.
Referees: Arteaga- Muhvic - Bitton
Quarters: 26-11, 38-30, 65-39, 78-51
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Alvertis, Kecman 2, Perperoglou 8, Batiste 10, Fotsis 10, Hatzivrettas 5, Nicolas 4, Charcharis 1, Diamantidis 15, Pekovic 14, Sakota, Jacikevisius 9
Zalgiris Kaunas (Krapikas): Dean 2, Salenga 11, Alijevas, Woods 17, Maciulis 7, Kalnietis, Janavicius 7, Zukauskas, Klimavicius 4, Varda 3, Masiulis
*The game did not feature the injured Vassilis Spanoulis (sole of the foot) and Dimitris Verginis.
