An exquisite second half, featuring Panathinaikos unraveling its splendor on court, doing what it knows best, in the best possible manner was all that was required for it to overcome Partizan 81-63 and get off on a victorious foot in the Top 16 round of the Euroleague. Nikola Pekovic annihilated his former team loading it with 26 points of his own, gaining 6 rebounds plus 8 drawn fouls, backed up by Vassilis Spanoulis and his 15 points, 4 rebounds and 6 drawn fouls. One of the game’s essential aspects was substantial defense on Partizan key players, such as Vesely who never once got to the basket or Rasic who after his initial scoring roll (he single-handedly made his team’s initial 5-0 run) remained in low digits getting only 8 points in all.
It was your classic Panathinaikos – Partizan encounter, bearing much resemblance to past games between the two, at least as much as the first part went. The better opponent out of the pair after tip-off was Partizan, being the team that retained the slight upper hand in the game in part 1. It denied Panathinaikos the privilege to do more than get even at 14-14 (6’50’’) after two bonus shots by Vassilis Spanoulis. For the rest of the duration the “clover” trailed even by 7 (4-11 at 3’25’’ and 16-23 at 8’25’’).
The Serbian game was good old simple basketball. Ball circulation, no rush, great effort at the rebound, effectiveness in zone defense it chose to enforce throughout most of the game and felicity at scoring. All these ingredients created a picture of non-complex result-baring ball-playing, Dusko Vujosevic making many and frequent substitutions, as he usually does. Even the fact of Vranes getting charged with his second personal foul early on at minute 5 into the game and by intermission tallying three, did not seem to have an impact on the team. On behalf of the host, the executor of the hour was a use-to-be Partizan child Nikola Pekovic who had chipped in 13 points already from the first half. The element that his former teammates took advantage of mostly was honesty from beyond the arc, factor that provided them with the lean lead come break-time (36-41), stats at 9-out of-14 threes (64%). In the same period of time Panathinaikos had 1-out of-6 in the respective category, investing more in its two-point shots and perfect free-shot execution (11/11).
Zeljko Obradovic had clearly less corrective instructions to offer his players after recess. Spanoulis put the pedal to the metal, Pekovic proved he’s not all talk and no show and although he owns up to being bonded with Partizan, he played to honor his Green jersey, giving battles at both ends of the court, actually every Panathinaikos player improved his efforts and result did not take long to show up on the floor. Amongst the pros for the hosts, the fact that their guests had begun to get “heavier” foul-wise, Vranes actually getting fouled-out at the begging of the fourth quarter.
The “Greens” took the game’s reigns for the first time in the encounter after the Monte Negron center buried two charity shots at 25’35’’, Spanoulis having tied the game up to now twice. The distance broadened to reach a double digit for the first time at 34’10’’ when Dimitris Diamantidis unleashed a triple (66-55), seeming to be everywhere on court. The game was leaning into Panathinaikos and it was a fact that its players were determent to verify leaving room for no one to second guess their team’s intentions. The gap grew to a 20 point advantage for the “clover” (79-59, 38’15’’), final buzzer featuring the score board reading 81-63 (26-11, fourth quarter partial score), the team being sent-off by its cheering fans, that once more did not fail to come to their team’s aid and jog it on to victory with their dynamic presence.
Referees: Jungerbrand(Finland)-Ankarali(Turkey)-Paternico(Italy)
Quarters: 22-23,36-41, 55-52, 81-63
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman 3, Spanoulis 15, Perperoglou 9, Batiste 6, Fotsis 6, Nicholas 2, Diamantidis 8, Pekovic 26, Jasikevicius 6
Partizan (Vujosevic): Tepic 8, Rasic 8, Tripkovic 10, Velickovic 13, Lasme 12, Vitkovac 2, Bozic 6, Rakocevic 2, Vesely, Vranes 2
*Kostas Tsartsaris (sprain) remained off official line-up, alongside Dimitris Verginis and Giorgi Shermadini.
