Defending champ Panathinaikos went for its first win in this season’s Top16 round downing Partizan at an away game in a packed Hala Pionir stadium by 82-66. Although it stood to gain nothing as far as the competition went, it was a great boost of confidence for the clover whilst home-team missed a shot to qualify straight to the final 8 a game shy of the series ending.
Zeljko Obradovic was competing deprived of the services of big-man Peko, however the team caught high level of performance, having Drew Nicholas make his shot “all day” in frontcourt, the greens always measuring up to their hosts aggressiveness on the floor. Home-team tried to enforce their pace on court through efforts by McCalebb and Kecman, opponents going hand-in-hand in scoring all through first quarter which ended with a 19-19 draw. Clover impact in defense forced the Serbians to back-to-back turnovers, in offense Nicholas sent the gap to 5 points for the first time in the matchup at 15’ (23-28). Hosts picked up a few offensive boards to get up on the greens to a single point of a trail, Kecman flexing the score to 28-29 at 18’. Panathinaikos though headed towards the locker rooms for recess leading by 35-32, as Mike Batiste got a lucky buzzer beater in at 20’.
Second half began as first ended, guests dialing long distance this time, Stratos Perperoglou making the call to step away from Partizan by 6 (32-38), home-team however muscling its way to tie with its visitor at 24’ (40-40), whilst slightly earlier Batiste had got into fouling trouble, committing personal number 3. Although the clover had some rebounding struggle, nevertheless it compensated for its shortcomings with feisty defense, offensive expresser of the hour Stratos Perperoglou to whom Nicholas passed the torch and who drained a couple of threes to form a 12 point cushion for his team at 29’ (48-60), encounter slightly leaning into the Panathinaikos play ground. Certain hasty choice in the first minutes of the final quarter did not cost the greens the lead but did allow Partizan to creep up on them (54-62, 33’). Zeljko Obradovic’s boys remained focused and contained their opponents all down the stretch into the clutch where praise to perfect beyond the arc bomber Drew Nicholas (6-for-6 threes) the visitors were up 14 (58-72, 37’) further up by 17 (62-79, 38’) to mount to final score 66-82, clover game.
Referees: Facchini (ITA), Ankarali (TUR), Vyklicky (CZE)
Quarters: 19-19, 32-35, 50-60, 66-82
Partizan (Vujocevic): Roberts 8, McCalebb 22, Kecman 9, Milosevic, Rasic 4, Mitrovic 4, Bozic 5, Maric 6, Vesely 8, Dekic, Vranes 2
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic, Spanoulis 7, Perperoglou 16, Batiste 12, Fotsis 2, Haislip 9, Nicholas (6-for-6 threes), Diamantidis 9, Calathes 1, Shermadini 4
