After an intriguing game, full of passion and intensity, Panathinaikos was defeated by Siena in Italy by 82-77, in spite of the substantial attendance of almost 200 fans that travelled all the way to the city in Tuscany and did not cease cheering on, not for a minute.
Panathinaikos started out better in the encounter hosting Diamantidis, Jasikevicius, Perperoglou, Batiste and Tsartsaris collaborating supremely in the first minutes so much in defense, covering each-other, not leaving much room for Siena to perform, as in offense, choosing wisely, threading the needle right in the heart of the opponent backcourt. Tip-off for Siena featured McIntyre, Domercant, Sato, Stonerook and Eze. Coach Obradovic’s guys flew ahead 8-to-2 (4’10’’) and steadily maintained the lead until 6’45’’, when the hosts took the reigns behind a three by Carraretto (14-13, 7’50’’). Although Perperoglou did not leave the shot unanswered, the succession was not kept up to par. Siena was swift and lucky at the basket, raced to a +5 advantage (20-25, 8’50’’), moments before the first quarter concluded at 20-18. The Italians had the upper hand in the second quarter too, making the most out of tough defense but mostly praised to three-pointer felicity, seeing that they headed to the locker rooms presenting 8-out of-16 shots beyond the arc. It was actually the only category in which they held the superlative to their rival who in the respective category had 5-out of-13. It was the factor that paced the hosts to jog to a +8 lead (37-29, 17’15’’), only to be followed by a mini “Green” come-back to 39-37 (18’50’’) followed by two free shots by McIntyre that brought the score to 43-37, at which point the first half ended, atmosphere quite hectic on the court at this time.
Panathinaikos stepped on the court determent to input its resist after the break, grasped the game’s momentum and capitalized on terrific backcourt execution, getting back on top, behind a trifecta connected on by Vassilis Spanoulis (45-46, 23’), who tallied 4 assists up to this moment, whilst having currently done the dirty work for his team stealing the ball two consecutive times. For Siena, the go-to-guy of the hour was Mark Carraretto who made two triples and carried his team to get away once more (56-49, 26’50’’), Panigiani’s players accumulating 10-out of-21 three-pointers up to now. Game was far from wrapped-up yet. Both teams fought at every play either in defense or offense, Mike Batiste had Panathinaikos’ protagonist spot, since he made use of each and every one of his teammates passes, moved perfectly without ball possession, got positioned exquisitely and formulated the tie score 61-61 that settled things in the third quarter. Fourth quarter recommencing, Panathinaikos set sail aggressively. Getting game and in spite of a technical foul charged to Mike Batiste (31’30’’) it was in the lead with 68-62 (31’45’’). It was clearly a down-to-the-wire game. Siena got the lead again thanks to Carraretto, a role-player who came off the bench and provided his team with much sought-for solutions. It was a long distance hoop of his that got the score-board reading 76-75 for the Italians at 38’15. Second in command of this last minute siege by Siena was the team’s leader, Terrell McIntyre, who summed up 21 points of his own, unleashing a three-pointer at crunch time, score at 79-77, only 52 seconds left on the clock. A wrong inbound pass for the guests alongside yet another three yet again by Carraretto (5-out of-5 three-pointers) was the game-giver for Siena, since it reached 82-77, 4 seconds until the final buzzer. No surprise it was the encounter’s final score.
Referees: Mitjana- Garcia Ortiz- Sutulovic€
Quarters: 20-18, 43-37, 61-61, 82-77
Montepaschi Siena (Pianigiani): Domercant 10, McIntyre 21, Eze 9, Sato 6, Lavrinovic 10, Lechthaler, Stonerook 5, McDonald 6, Ress, Carraretto 15
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman, Spanoulis 9, Perperoglou 7, Batiste 28, Fotsis, Hatzivrettas, Nicholas 6, Tsartsaris, Diamantidis 11, Pekovic 2, Jasikevicius 11
