Greens beat Baskonia to rise to joint second in Euroleague
Panathinaikos defeated Baskonia 69-68 on Friday and has joined the Basques, Olympiakos – that suffered a bad loss at Bamberg on Thursday – and two more teams at the second place of the Euroleague table with nine wins in 14 games.
The Greens started with an 11-point advantage (27-16), but after the first quarter they were particularly poor in their shooting and in rebounds. They still came back from nine points down (40-49) to lead by four (67-63) and hold on to their slender lead in the end by frustrating their opponents’ attack.
The great defensive work by Nick Calathes (14 points, seven rebounds, four steals) throughout the match, but particularly in the last attack by Baskonia, helped extend the Greek team’s winning run to four games.
Chris Singleton was outstanding for the Greens with 23 points, while Mike James added another 16.
Olympiakos appeared tired in Germany and lost 82-68 on Thursday to a stubborn Bamberg that is evolving into the bogey team for the Reds.
The German side that includes Greece guard Nikos Zisis (nine points on the night) was dominant throughout the game stretching its lead beyond 20 points, with Olympiakos having only Vassilis Spanoulis (15 points) and Costas Papanikolaou (11 points) on a good night.
This put an end to the streak of four wins Olympiakos had enjoyed and taken its record to 9-5.
The action resumes in the Euroleague on December 29, with Olympiakos hosting Zeljko Obradovic’s Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos traveling to UNICS Kazan.
