CSKA Moscow beat reigning Champions Panathinaikos 78-76 in an overtime thriller - Euroleague Recap (Part 1)
Excited fans made their way to O.A.C.A arena way earlier than the scheduled time to witness a classic encounter between the local heroes and reigning Euroleague champions Panathinaikos and Russian Champs CSKA Moscow.
As was expected, it was a classic as forty minutes proved insufficient to decide a winner and CSKA Moscow managed to hold their nerves in the overtime to edge past Panathinaikos 78-76 to grab their 4th consecutive victory of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague 2011.
In the intense battle, Panathinaikos were ahead of their opponents most of the time during the game, however CSKA came from behind and stunned the reigning champions in the end.
CSKA’s head coach Jonas Kazlauskas, who is the former coach of Olympiacos, never managed to take his former team to victory over Panathinaikos, so this victory was very special for him. Overjoyed with the win, he added
“I don't need to explain why we are so happy after this victory. We started the game with some offensive problems, and we didn't have the proper reaction against the zone that Panathinaikos played. We didn't read some situations the way we had to and we made mistakes, but when you win, everything is fine. I've been here a lot of times as coach of Olympiacos, but tonight it was a different feeling. It is my first victory here – I lost to Panathinaikos every time with Olympiacos”
Ramunas Siskauskas led the winning team with 14 points on 4 for 5 from the paint and 2 for 5 from downtown. Nenad Krstic completed a double-double by scoring 13 points and forcing 11 rebounds.
Viktor Khryapa (11) and Alexey Shved (10) were two other players who managed to end with scores in double figures for CSKA. Utah Jazz’s Andrei Kirilenko, who was representing CSKA in this game was also impressive and missed a double-double by whisker. He scored 9 points and pulled out 10 rebounds.
Kostas Kaimakoglou was the highest scorer for Panathinaikos with 13 points including 4 for 4 from the free throw line while Nick Calathes also chipped in with his 11 along with 6 rebounds. No other player from the team managed to end with scores in double figures which contributed to Panathinaikos loss in the end.
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