Panathinaikos rout Zalgiris Kaunas 92-75; Remain unbeaten in Group B – Euroleague Recap
Turkish Airlines Euroleague Defending Champion Panathinaikos continued their undefeated run in the Group B after romping to a 92-75 victory over Zalgiris Kaunas on November 04 at OAKA. With the win, Panathinaikos rolled onto a
3-0 record while the Lithuanian champs, who played their first game under new head coach Aleksandar Trifunovic, slipped to 0-3 in the group.
Reigning Euroleague MVP Dimitris Diamantidis led the winners with 16 points on a brilliant 4 for 5 shooting from three-point range, grabbed three rebounds and also dished out three assists. Mike Batiste posted 14 points; hitting
a perfect 6 for 6 from free throw line, while Ian Vougioukas and David Logan came off the bench with 13 points apiece. Nick Calathes contributed seven assists and seven points in the third consecutive victory for the champions.
Sonny Weems paced the visiting team with a game-high 21 points and stole the ball for three times in more than 26 minutes. Weems ended on a 6 for 10 shooting from two-point range and 3 for 3 from downtown. Ty Lawson registered
14 points, pulled down four rebounds and dealt out four assists while Milovan Rakovic had 12 points and three assists in the loss.
Zalgiris started well in the game and held a point lead after a tightly contested first five minutes, but Panathinaikos exploded for six points in a row for a 17-12 lead. Kaunas however managed to cut the margin to just three,
21-18. Panathinaikos then stepped up with four unanswered points to push their lead seven, 25-18. Lan Vougioukas trimmed their lead to four with his lay-up at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Kaunas managed to shut the Defending Champions down in front of their loud and faithful home crowd and converted the opening period deficit into a 42-38 lead at halftime.
The third quarter started completely different from the second as Panathinaikos exploded for a 15-7 run and was back into the game with a 53-45 lead. However, Zalgiris appeared for five straight points that made it 53-50. The Kaunas
tried for some more open spots to find the rim but Panathinaikos shot from everywhere inside that put things back in place with a 64-55 lead after three.
Panathinaikos’ convenient 10-0 run early in the last quarter of the game was all that the champions needed to seal another comfortable victory in the regular season.
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