Panathinaikos got to a victorious Euroleague opening, having all players committed to its every need on the floor, armed and ready to fire when shooting power at question, concluding in a positive walk through Armani Jeans Milano’s home-court, final score 75-67 in favor of the clover.
Tip-off saw on to a tough battle between opponents, neither being able to get away in the clash throughout the entire first half. Panathinaikos might have enjoyed the upper hand, nevertheless Armani Jeans Milano refused to let go; even at times when it seemed to lose its pace or run out of energy it always found a way to squeeze itself back into the encounter. This it achieved either through board gathering or exploitation of Panathinaikos’s misfortune at getting satisfactory shooting range.
The greens led by 17-10 (5’10’’) but a foul whistled on a three-point attempt by Finley next to a triple behind Maciulis was the beginning of the Italian counterattack. They ran a 10-0 streak, got up by 3 (20-17, 7’20’’), first quarter closing at 22-21. Teams went hand in hand for quarter 2. Neither emerged as the leader although the hosts seemed to have more methods of offending, found solutions quite easier than their guests, actually making the most of the large amount of free-throws they were awarded, getting behind 11 for 13 charity shots up to intermission, whilst Panathinaikos stood at the poor 3 for 3 stats in the respective category, alongside an unpleasant turnover accumulation (9 for the greens) as the game went into recess, score board currently reading 38-35 for the home-team.
A trio of unguarded triple attempts spread out amongst Nicholas, Fotsis and Diamantidis, all three shots missing their mark though, allowed Milano to a 7 point distance, seeing that on the contrary to their rivals Acker and Bulleri swooshed the net on their opts to the basket to aid their team’s lead (44-37, 23’20’’). It was Spanoulis’s time to step up in the battle field as he unleashed a trifecta that found its way to validity (44-40, 23’30’’). Stratos Perperoglou added a shot beyond the arc to Spanoulis’s effort and cut the trail down to 1 (50-49, 28’30’’), threw in a two-pointer to his scoring siege to reestablish Panathinaikos back in pole-position (50-51, 29’) and then produced even further in the clover’s best interest allowing it to bring its host within a 3 point margin (50-53, 29’20’’). Diamantidis followed the aforementioned player’s lead by unraveling a three-pointer to sign the epilogue in third period, score at 52-56.
Alas the Italians got to a hasty tie almost immediately after fourth quarter opening (56-56, 30’45’’) finding the way to the basket and to reigning spot mostly thank to attempts by self assigned go-to-guy of the moment Stefano Mancinelli (58-56, 32’). Spanoulis though, was still lurking around with a never-expiring license to kill and struck again to 58-59 (33’25’’). Big-guy Nikola Pekovic’s fourth personal that followed was all bad news for the clover. Notwithstanding this situation, Pekovic though having been previously benched was led back to floor time as his substitution Giorgi Shermadini was fouled out at 35’30’’ during the process of the greens being in the lead by 63-60. Spanoulis drained a trademark lay-in to step away from Milano by 5, Diamantidis pulled back-to-back two’s to formulate 63-69, 37’45’’ score board reading. Dire needs led to dire moves next as Nikola Pekovic’s fifth personal produced Antonis Fotsis as the team’s center, Perperoglou at power forward with dynamic perimeter of guards Spanoulis, Nicholas and Diamantidis. A pair of free throws by Vspan jogged Panathinaikos to a +8 edge (63-71, 38’) as the game started to fade-out to a Panathinaikos dominance in the 2009 Euroleague premiere, final score 67-75.
Referees: Hierrezuelo (Spain), Boltauzer (Slovenia), Radovic (Croatia)
Quarters: 22-21, 38-35, 52-56, 67-75
Armani Jeans Milano (Bucchi): Acker 9, Mancinelli 8, Hall 3, Maciulis 12, Mordente 3, Finley 13, Bulleri 5, Rocca 9, Petravicius 5
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 3, Spanoulis 19 (5as), Perperoglou 13 (4stls), Fotsis 2, Nicholas 2, Diamantidis 12, Pekovic 17 (6rbs, 7df), Calathes 5, Shermadini 2
Zeljko Obradovic
At the end of the encounter the head coach of Panathinaikos stated: “In the first part we committed many mistakes which our opponents exploited to the most, converting them into easy baskets. We knew from the start that we had our work cut out for us, since all who play against us have a supplementary motivation”, Obradovic commented only to add: “In the second half we improved our attitude and got to the win. A very important win for us, since this is the Euroleague premiere we are talking about. A more than important element is the wake-up-call contributed by Dimitris Diamantidis during this period of time, not to mention the fact that he himself came to realize that he is one of this team’s leaders. This is something that more players should also understand so as to start to get more shooting range and become even more aggressive. They are equipped with the quality to do so”.
