Panathinaikos was the better opponent on court for the greatest part of the encounter, nevertheless Unicaja Malaga was the one to take the win behind final score 66-60, at the “Martin Carpena” arena, in THY Euroleague Top16 Game 10.
Panathinaikos saw the same game play out many times during the encounter, since it edged advantages, stepped away from the home-team, but the gap kept closing, only for the same scenario to play out for yet another time. Unicaja led during the first minutes of the clash (6-2, 4’), tied immediately when the clover flew ahead (8-8, 6’20’’), but from that point forward and all the way down to 38’, Panathinaikos held the superlative. The first quarter ended 8-16, solutions mainly provided through three-point range and total pace control, which it held throughout the entire game. The game went down the road the technical staff had aspired towards; Unicaja Malaga was unable to run off to fast breaks while a balance existed in the rebound department.
The Spaniards crept up on their guests (15-18, 13’16’’), Panathinaikos broke away (15-23, 15’) only for the same thing to play out for the clover as it would up the ante to +10 behind Ukic (24-34, 19’36’’) and then some to +12 (26-38, 20’10’’) behind Maciulis. The hosts got within three points from its guest (35-38 at 23’, 38-41 at 24’50’’), only for Schortsanitis and Ukic to re-provide their team with a 9 point headway (44-53, 30’). The final quarter was the worst for Panathinaikos. The partial 22-7 score that was marked during fourth quarter is indicative. Maybe more indicative though is the 14-2 score, recorded from 33’20’’ (52-58) up to final 66-60, which was almost solely created by Marcus Williams, who tallied 14 points in the last quarter behind 3 consecutive triples from 57-60 (37’25’’) down to 66-60…
Referees: Rocha (POR), Lottermoser (GER), Viator (FRA)
Quarters: 8-16, 26-35, 44-53, 66-60
Unicaja Malaga (Repesa): Simon 9, Williams 22, Panko, Vidal, Urtasun 3, Calloway 5, Perovic, Vasquez 13, Zoric 14
Panathinaikos (Pedoulakis): Bramos, Maciulis 15 (4-for-7 threes), Ukic 14, Lasme 6 (7rb, 2bs), Tsartsaris 2, Diamantidis 8 (7as), Gist 7 (8rbs, 2st), Banks 2, Xanthopoulos, Giannopoulos, Schortsanitis 6
Pedoulakis: «Dumb loss…»
Panathinaikos Head Coach, Argyris Pedoulakis, stated after the game: “That was a dumb loss. For 37-38 minutes we had control over the game. During the last quarter they allowed us to shoot, we missed lay-ups, while at the other end Unicaja Malaga made shots on one-on-one plays. The last two minutes in the game were catastrophic for us. We must examine our mistakes and improve, especially in difficult situations. Our opponents risked at the end with the two big men, but also by committing many shots. We were unable to exploit that very risk. As things have formed at the moment, the most logical thing to do is to give a battle for the last position in our group to seal a berth to the play-offs”.
