Euroleague Champion… Again! The 6th European star will be sewed to Panathinaikos jersey, since after a down to the wire encounter it ultimately bested Maccabi Tel Avic by 78-70 and resituated itself on Europe’s thrown after two years and its prior triumph in Berlin! Zeljko Obradovic’s team apart from certain minin dry spells during the clash, was dominant in every single department, determined and unraveling pure character every time Maccabi seemed to threaten it. Especially during the last minutes in the game when Maccabi crept creepily close to Panathinaikos, the greens were astonishing!
Panathinaikos since tip-off in the Final tried its best, posing behind main weapon its good defense, to enforce its pace. Praise to a very pleasing Vougioukas it managed to get up by 0-4 and 3-6 but a pair of hasty fouls on the Greek center changed Zeljko Obradoivc’s plans, who opted towards throwing Aleks Maric into battle. Three pointers off the Israelis stood a unsolvable issue-at least during this period of time-for the coach of Panathinaikos (6’, 13-11), who however sat in the joyous position of getting his boys Mike Batiste and Dimitris Diamantidis take the team on their backs at this point and lead it to a mini 4-9 streak, score resting at 15-22 for the first quarter buzzer. Maccabi tried to counteract behind a suffocating defense, Eidson leading his team in frontcourt, hence it gained on its opponent 22-25 at 13’, the clover seeming a tad out of it during the respective period of time, mainly in offense. Lost defensive rebounds and consecutive turnovers in offence brought Maccabi to trail only be a single point after a three unleashed by Blu (30-31) only for the intermission to arrive hosting Panathinaikos in the lead by 30-33, the ensuing game being painted as another nail-biter!
Maccabi tried to take its opponent by surprise at the beginning of the second half and hosting behind Pargo it led for the first time at 22’, score 36-35 off a bucket by Schortsanitis, however the clover input a response immediately. A pair of triples drilled by Romain Sato cruised on to a sweet +7 cushion (36-43, 25’), edge to expand even further a while later praise to a bombastic, notorious two-hander slam dunk by Antonis Fotsis, opponent currently within 11 points (40-51, 28’). Defense however was the deal maker up to this point and it was the reason things ran smoothly down the stretch. Third quarter closed Panathinaikos at +11 (43-54). In the fourth quarter Drew Nicholas stepped up to chip in score wise and behind 5 consecutive points plus a pair of free throws off the captain the clover climbed all the way up to +14 (47-61, 33’). Maccabi tried to play a last hand in the game and praise to very tough defense got the score board reading 56-63 at 35’30’’, only to cut the trail down to 5 (64-69 1’30’’ to go in the game and 70-74, 19’’ pending). The greens though were determined to get the prize and by unraveling true character and acting behind a clear state of mind, Diamantidis and Batiste essential players of the hour managed to seal the deal at final score 70-78, clover game, greens to take the cup!
Quarters: 15-22, 30-33, 43-54, 70-78
Referees: Mitjana(ESP), Lamonica (ITA), Lottemoser (GER)
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Blatt): Pargo 12, Hendrix, Sharp, Blu 15, Eliyahu 12, Pnini, Burstein, Eidson 17, Macvan 3, Schortsanitis 4
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic, Maric 2, Perperoglou 2, Batiste 18 (6rbs, 6df), Fotsis 5 (7rbs), Sato 13 (7rbs), Nicholas 14 (5df), Tsartsaris, Diamantidis 16 (5rbs, 7df, 9as), Vougioukas 4, Calathes 4 (6as), Kaimakoglou
