Panathinaikos escape a late charge from Maccabi Electra; Qualify for the Final Four with a 86-85 win – Euroleague Recap
Dimitris Diamantidis, the reigning Euroleague MVP, saved his best performance for the game-5 of the playoffs, as the defending champions Panathinaikos managed to pull off an 86-85 heist against last year’s finalists Maccabi Electra.
Playing in front of a sold out O.A.K.A., the Greek giants were slow to begin with and trailed by two points after the first quarter, 18-20. However, a 13-4 run midway through the second established a firm hold for the hosts, who
went into the break with a 41-32 advantage.
A Diamantidis three early in the second half pushed Panathinaikos’ advantage to 46-34, but what followed was a 12-0 blast from the Israelis, capped by a jumper from Hendrix Richards which tied the scores at 46. Yogev Ohayon knocked
down consecutive three’s during that spurt, and had a chance to give the lead to Maccabi on the next possession. But, he missed twice from the charity stripe.
Shaken up by the Israeli onslaught, the defending champs bounced back with a 10 point unanswered run to retake control. Stratos Perperoglou had five points during that run, including a triple pointer that provided the exclamation
mark at 56-46.
Panathinaikos extended their lead to 12 again going into the last seconds of the third quarter, but a long range bomb from Tal Burstein brought Maccabi’s deficit to 53-62.
The Greens quickly pushed the lead into double figure in the fourth and maintained it till the halfway stage of the quarter. Electra tired to inch back with an 8-1 run in the next couple of minutes, but the hosts managed to hold
on to an 81-74 advantage with the clock winding down.
That was where Keith Langford took over for Maccabi.
The American guard started by drilling a three pointer and after Aleks Maric missed both his free throws from the other end; Langford struck twice from the foul line to make it a two point game, 79-81.
Diamantidis brought Panathinaikos lead back to 4 after making two free throws, but a three point play from David Blu brought the Israeli champs within one. Up stepped Dimitris and drew another contact for a deuce from the free
throw line, but three freebies from Guy Pnini squared the things up at 85.
With just 9.8 seconds to go, Dimitris had the ball in his hand and he sold a fake to the Maccabi defense again to get to the stripe. The number 13 guard made the first, but missed the second as Burstein grabbed the rebound to give
Electra one last shot at salvaging a win.
Diamantidis was however not going to let his clutch folly cost the champions a shot at repeat, and made the game winning steal to seal the win and a semifinal spot against CSKA Moscow.
Diamantidis closed the game with a game-high 25 points, including 15 free throws, and 6 rebounds. Sarunas Jasikevicius was the only other Green with double scoring figure. He had 13 points on a 4-for-5 from the two point range
and a three pointer.
Blu led Maccabi’s charge with 14 points; Langford posted 11 with 5 assists while Burstein and Yogev Ohayon had 10 apiece.
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