Panathinaikos survive a thriller; Beat Unicaja 77-76: Euroleague Recap
Thursday night had its due share of cliff-hangers and the best of them all involved the reigning Champions, Panathinaikos. The Greeks beat Unicaja 77-76 and improve their record to 4-2 in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague 2011.
Dominating the game completely midway through the second quarter, Panathinaikos made a mess of things and allowed Unicaja a passage to get back into the game.
Unicaja responded outstandingly and almost made the champions pay for their horror defensive display, however Dimitris Diamantidis proved his class down the stretch to deny Unicaja of a memorable win.
Dimitris, fittingly, was the top scorer from the side. He pounded 23 points including an outstanding 7 for 11 from downtown. Romain Sato and Steven Smith added 13 points and 6 rebounds each to complement the reigning league MVP.
Luka Zoric dominated Unicaja’s offense with 21 points on an 8 for 13 from the two point zone. Tremmell Darden finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds whereas Kristaps Valters accumulated11 points.
All the three top scorers from Panathinaikos preferred long range shooting on the night and delivered right in the beginning to complete a 13-5 run for their team. Although Unicaja made a comeback in the next few minutes but did not have answers to the trio until the end of the first quarter, which finished with them trailing by 10 points, 27-17.
Dimitris continued to key the onslaught for Panathinaikos and pushed their lead to 17 points 34-17 early in the second quarter.
However, what followed next was a bizarre display of defence from Panathinaikos as they gave easy points to opponents, allowing them to complete a 15-6 spurt and make it 32-40. The spurt boosted the confidence of Unicaja and they went on to score quickly to end the half trailing by just 2 points 43-45.
The scores were eventually levelled at 45 and then again at 48. Panathinaikos though had woken up by now and again managed to get ahead by 58-51 with few minutes remaining in the third quarter.
A 6 point crucial run in the ending moments however again got Unicaja back in the hunt as the quarter ended with Greeks only leading by 1 point 58-57.
Unicaja continued the good work in the decisive quarter and kept on scoring critical points to get ahead of the opponents. They were in the driving seat, leading by 75-71 with less than a minute remaining in the game, but unfortunately for them Dimitris decided that he will not lose the game. He first scored through a layup and then drilled a three in the dying moments to leave Unicaja players stunned.
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