Panathinaikos OPAP Athens registered a good-as-gold road win by downing Zalgiris Kaunas 85-86 in front of almost 15,000 fans at Zalgirio Arena on Tuesday. Panathinaikos improved to 5-4 in the standings while Zalgiris dropped to 3-6 and is now on a three-game losing streak. Nick Calathes led the winners with 19 points and 12 assists, DeShaun Thomas added 13 points, Ioannis Papapetrou scored 12 and Jimmer Fredette 11 for Panathinaikos. Zach LeDay paced Zalgiris with 15 points, Lukas Lekavicius added 14, Jock Landale 12 and Arturas Milaknis and Edgaras Ulanovas each scored 11 for the hosts. LeDay had 11 early points to give Zalgiris a 16-11 lead. Calathes struck twice from downtown in a 0-10 run that put Panathinaikos ahead, 16-21, early in the second quarter. Calathes kept pushing the visitors and got help from Fredette and Thomas to boost their team's lead to 33-41 at halftime. Back-to-back triples by a red-hot Calathes broke the game open, 35-51, soon after the break. Panathinaikos kept a 53-64 margin at the end of the third quarter and even though Zalgiris managed to get within 71-76 in the next-to-last minute, Fredette, Papapetrou and Tyrese Rice made the difference down the stretch.
PHOTOS
