Papapetrou, Spanoulis shine in the Euroleague
Panathinaikos was truly convincing against Maccabi Tel Aviv to get a much-needed home win on Thursday, while Vassilis Spanoulis showed he is not done yet with top-quality basketball, leading Olympiakos to a come-from-behind win over Zenit.
Panathinaikos coach Oded Kattash led his team to an 81-63 victory against the club he made his name at, with a commanding performance for almost the entire game at the Olympic Sports Hall.
The Greens took a 16-point distance in the first quarter (25-9) and after a mediocre third period that ended 58-55 they regained the upper hand to win handsomely.
They had captain Ioannis Papapetrou back to his top level with 20 points, while Dinos Mitoglou had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
That was the 10th win for the Greek champion in 27 matches.
Olympiakos came back from 17 points down (26-9) in Piraeus against Zenit St Petersburg to win 75-61.
After yet another poor first half, Olympiakos grew stronger and stronger as the game went on, finding solutions in attack and strangling Zenit in defense, especially in the second half.
The attacking blackout of Zenit, with just five points in the final quarter, and the impressive showing by Spanoulis with 11 points in the same period, gave the Piraeus team a comfortable win in the end.
Spanoulis made 16 points and Shaquielle McKissic with Sasha Vezenkov made 13 each for the Reds who are now on a 13-16 record.
