Back to victories for Panathinaikos in the Euroleague, that prevailed over Nancy for game 3 in the normal season. Though the “Greens” presented no consistency and committed a bad third quarter (16-9), shortcoming they could have presumably paid for, the difference in quality caliber was such, that the French weren’t able to make it the day of the underdog. The encounter ended with the Panathinaikos team on top and its players showing their gratitude to the club’s fans who went to support them in the flesh in the Palais de Sports “Jean Weilli” of Nancy.
Being the better ensemble in the game was not alone enough to provide Panathinaikos with a sufficient lead that would allow it to relax early on in the encounter against Nancy. The “Greens” took the lead at 5’30’’ with Drew Nicolas (initial five were the latter alongside Diamantidis, Perperoglou, Tsartsaris, Batiste), lost it only momentarily (14-13, 6’), but from then on the game and the head of the score were solely a matter of its own. Just a while before first quarter buzzer the gap ranged to +9 (15-24), to grasp double digits at 16’ (26-37). Nancy though was present, putting in a sizable effort, it found its way, all too often, to open shots and got the margin reduced to 4 points (37-41, 18’30’’), sending both teams to recess, score at 37-45. The key element for Panathinaikos was domination in rebounding, statistically speaking it had 23-to-10 (45-to-29 final stats!), allowing Nancy to collect only 1 defensive rebound, whilst already counting 11 offensive ones for itself! Achilles heel for the Greek team were the free shots, 5/11 in the first half (11/21, 52% total) and once again poor three pointer stats, 4/16 half time up against 6/11 for Nancy with perfect Ricardo Greer (4/4) turning out to be the greatest trouble-maker for Panathinaikos, tallying up to this point 17 points for the French team.
A “petit” breakout from the “Greens” rose the difference once more to +11 (39-50, 22’50’’), but the French again found the way to fight back, mostly thanks to long distance shots, actually finding themselves breathing down the “Greens” throat, only 3 points short of their opponent (47-50, 25’30’’). Nicola Pekovic finally made use of a charity shot, slightly later (up to now he had 0/4), making the score 47-51, only to be challenged by Nancy, that made its triumphant come-back in the game, sneaking ahead by the slim 52-51 at 28’ gratis to yet another triple, this time unleashed by Tchicamboud. The third quarter ended with Panathinaikos leading by the meekest possible difference (53-54).
A 7-0 streak, game recommencing, formulated the 53-61 for the “Greens”, allowing it to enjoy some space from its rival but the French were out to get the most they could on the court. Panathinaikos climbed one more time to +9 (55-64) thanks to a triphecta from the substantial Dusan Kecman. But there was no consistency in its progress, it presented a few problems, it did not avoid mistakes and Ricardo Greer with back to back two pointers brought the game down to the wire, the Greeks leading only by 1 (68-69, 37’). The great protagonist of the final act in the game for Panathinaikos was Mike Batiste. He guided his team to the more convenient 68-74 (37’45’’) and then assisted it to cruise on to 70-77 (39’10’’), just to see Diamantidis embark on a long haul three- pointer to make the final score 70-80 and the “Greens” the winner of the encounter. Next week, Panathinaikos will be hosting Siena for game 4 at the OAKA arena.
Referees: Hierrezuelo, Sutulovic, Chiari
Quarters: 18-24, 37-45, 53-54, 70-80
Nancy (Monschau): Cox, Morandais 3, Wilson 8, Julian 4, Greer J. 5, Tchicamboud 18, Aboubakar, Benson 4, Samnick 2, Greer R. 26
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman 6, Perperoglou 4, Batiste 18, Fotsis 2, Hatzivrettas, Nicolas 8, Tsartsaris 11, Diamantidis 14, Pekovic 10, Jasikevicius 7
*Sarunas Jasikevicius already from the first half of the game found himself amongst the top 10 scorers of all time in the Euroleague, flying ahead of Dejan Bodiroga. Going into the game he had 1605 points in 115 games and needed only 3 to surpass Bodiroga.
*Mike Batiste in the first part had knocked Jorge Garbajosa off the 20th spot in the all time best scorers list. Starting out he had 1363 points and was 4 points shy of the Spaniard.
*Panathinaikos’ star studded roster was once more somewhat blunt due to Vassilis Spanoulis and Fragiskos Alvertis absences.
Quotes
Zeljko Obradovic: “Before the game we had stated that it would be an important encounter, this against Nancy. Up to now it was the team with the most offensive rebounds in the Euroleague, it is an athletic team and it demanded our full attention. In the first part we did an excellent job in that category. We created great situations and opportunities to run the open field for fast breaks and unguarded shots, but the trouble is that we didn’t score. In our last practice we made a lot of shots and faced no problems, but in the game we just didn’t get them in. I believe they will in the games to come. In the last minutes we played an offensive game. It was easy to read Nancy’s defense. It is a very proud team, but I am very proud myself and proud of my players too. I am content because we presented a better profile than that in the game against Barcelona”.
Nicola Pekovic: “It was an important and difficult game, since we were the guest team. Nancy is a powerful team, an athletic one, recovering from two defeats. Thus it was highly motivated to beat Panathinaikos in its home, across from its fans. We were good defensively in the first half, generally our defense was good, but offensively we committed a few mistakes, missed some easy baskets and this is something we must work on in practice, so as to avoid repeating it in the upcoming games”.
Jean Luk Monschau (Nancy coach): “It’s really hard to beat Panathinaikos. I am very proud of the opportunity we created. But to beat this team you need more luck and respect, because the final calls weren’t for us”.
