Maccabi Electra edge Panathinaikos again; Move one step closer to the Final Four – Euroleague Recap
After edging out the defending Euroleague champions, Panathinaikos, in a 94-92 overtime thriller in the game two of the best of five playoff series, Maccabi Electra repeated the script on Tuesday night, squeaking past the Greeks
65-62 at the Nokia centre.
The Israeli champions nearly made a mess of what should have a cake walk. They had an 11-0 spurt early in the game and going into the second quarter, were comfortably ahead by 15 points, 41-26. With Panathinaikos struggling to
find the basket, at halftime, it appeared that the game was apparently going only one way.
However things changed significantly after the break. The defending champs stormed onto the court with a 15-5 burst to make it a five point game, 41-46 and a three pointer from Dimitris Diamantidis, the reigning league MVP, early
in the fourth brought down the deficit to three, 56-53.
In the next couple of minutes, Maccabi again stretched their lead to six, but a three pointer from Kostas Kaimakoglou followed by a deuce from Stratos Perperoglou, brought the Greeks within striking range at 61-60. Devin Smith
made a jumper on the next Maccabi possession to release some pressure on the hosts, but with seconds left on the clock Dimitris put the ball through the rim to bring the scores at 62-63.
Maccabi took a time out at that point and when play returned Keith Langford messed up a two point attempt. Richard Hendrix however hauled down the offensive rebound and tipped in the ball to put Maccabi up by three, and for good.
Panathinaikos still had a chance to take the game into overtime but Nick Calathes missed the three point attempt.
"My last basket released a lot of tension.” Hendrix, who finished the night with9 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots, said after the game. “Panathinaikos is a great team and we knew they could come back. We were also lucky
to win tonight, but we are not done yet. We are already looking forward to Thursday. Making the Final Four was our goal at the beginning of the season. Now we are just one win from there."
Maccabi got 12 points and 6 assists from Yogev Ohayon and 11 points from Smith. Panathinaikos were paced by 13 points from Mike Batiste; 11 from Ian Vougioukas and 10 from Diamantidis.
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