Performing with a full house home court to its advantage, Panathinaikos downed Efes Pilsen at the OAKA stadium 84-61, in views of Euroleague first round, regular season game 4. Zeljko Obradovic cleared off the bench in the clash, Drew Nicholas remaining sidelined, facing a sprain injury. All 12 players aided in every department, first goal containing Tunceri and Rakosevic being accomplished to its fullest, as prior amounted to 0 points, latter tallied 11.
Panathinaikos’s intention to invest mainly in defense was more than apparent, even from the first few minutes coming off tip-off. However, all the more obvious was Efes Pilsen’s zest to fight and get the best it could, nicked whatever was possible in the OAKA arena. Teams went hand-in-hand in scoring for quite some time. The greens led by 6-2 (2’20’’), Efes Pilsen managed to tip things towards its advantage at 8’10’’ (10-12), point at which the scales started to lean in towards the clover, that for yet another encounter was enjoying quite a large and feisty crowd feeling its fan’s stands, jogging the team along. A partial 10-0 run, flexed the score to 20-12 (11’20’’) and efforts failed to rest at this. Perperoglou drilling a three, Panathinaikos mounted double score (38-19, 17’20’’) and kept walking down the same stride, ultimately not feeling any sense of a threat.
The Turks tried all kinds of defenses, tried to enforced pressure and all the more condense the Panathinaikos defense became, all the more easier things came up on court for Zeljko Obradovic’s boys. Gap got to 20 point behind Mike Batiste (56-36, 27’), Dimitris Diamantidis unleashed a trifecta to +23 (61-38, 28’20’’), green’s coach having sent Kostas Kaimakoglou off into battle (23’15’’). The distance between the teams expanded even further to +25 (67-42, 32’20’’). Wisniewski was he who tried to cut the guest’s trail in the first minutes of the fourth quarter. Behind 10 consecutive points of the aforementioned, Efes Pilsen crept up to 18 points (70-52, 35’). Arslan copied his teammate’s efforts to drain a triple (70-55, 35’20’’), only for Mike Batiste to put an end to the Turkish siege with yet another impressive slam-dunk (72-55, 35’40’’). One more aley-oop charged to “Mihalis” formed 76-55 (36’20’’) and Diamantidis with his very own impressive manor marked 78-55 (36’45’’). Mike Batiste though had made up his mind to get more game in the evening. One more notorious ball-flushing got the score board reading 80-57, fan’s soaring to their feet (not that Panathinaikos fans had ever been seen seated during the entire matchup) and making his move he got to 82-58 (38’15’’). In the final seconds of the game, Obradovic ordered Yannis Karamalegkos to the floor, seeing on to official game score of the night 84-61, a pair of charity shots off Kostas Kaimakoglou.
Referees: Pukl (SLO), Cerebuch (ITA), Dozai (CRO)
Quarters: 15-12, 41-29, 61-40, 84-61
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Karamalegkos, Tepic 2, Maric 3, Perperoglou 12, Batiste 17, Fotsis 4, Sato 11, Tsartsaris 8, Diamantidis 7, Vougioukas 3, Calathes 11, Kaimakoglou 6
Efes Pilsen (Perasovic): Wisniewski 12, Akyol, Rakosevic 11, Roberts, Tunceri, Thorton 2, Gonlum 10, Arslan 10, Vujcic, Nachbar 13, Guler 3
