Panathinaikos defeats Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv to win Euro league title - European Basketball Update
Dimitris Diamantidis spearheaded the Panathinaikos, as they defeated the Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 78-70, in the final of the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euro league, held at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, on Sunday, May 8.
Diamantidis scored 16 points and swatted nine assists, to help the Panathinaikos lift the trophy. Diamantidis became the third person in history, to claim the Final Four Most Valuable Player honour, twice.
After the game, a high spirited Diamantidis, said, “I think we played well and all that matters is that we managed to win it in the end. This is why you practice hard and why you play basketball.”
Mike Batiste scored 18 points, Drew Nicholas had 14 and Romain Sato added 13, as they led a very stable team effort.
Batiste, who won the championship with Panathinaikos in 2007 and 2009 said, “I am really happy especially for this European championship because we worked so hard for it. In the last two we were kind of expected to win, but not this one. We worked really
hard all season for this.”
With this victory, the Greek Club has secured their sixth European title, of which three have come in the past five years. Earlier, the club defeated defending champions Barcelona, in the quarter-finals and then Montepaschi Siena, in the semi-final on Friday.
The Greeks kept the All-Euroleague centre, Sofoklis Schortsanitis under check as he remained scoreless in the first two quarters of the game. Panathinaikos dominated Tel Aviv since they controlled the paint and blocked numerous shots early in the game.
The Israelis were within the striking distance as they went into the third quarter with a three-point deficit, when Sofoklis finally got going and made some possessions to push the Maccabi to a 36-35 advantage. Despite the spirited comeback, the effort lived
for a short while.
Nicholas and Sato heated up and nipped the Maccabi’s run with a brisk 19-8 charge, that gave the Greeks a double-digit lead and they finished the third quarter at 43-54, ahead of Tel Aviv. Romain nailed three whooshes during the spurt.
Panathinaikos were sailing in the final quarter with an extended lead of 14 points, when Maccabi made a late surge that trimmed down the deficit to just five, but Diamantidis emerged on the scene and found Batiste for a layup.
The Greeks then scored the final points of the game from the foul-line, as thousands of Panathinaikos fans started celebrating their team’s victory.
Chuck Eidson led the Tel Aviv with 17 points and seven re-bounds. Team-mate David Blu, had 14 points, Jeremy Pargo added 12 and wracked nine assists, while Lior Eliyahu chipped in with 12 points.
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