Seven Panathinaikos players score in double-figures in a 98-77 win over Unicaja – Euroleague Recap
Reigning MVP Dimitris Diamantidis led a host of double-figures scorers as the defending champions Panathinaikos started their 2011-12 regular season campaign in style by outlasting Unicaja 98-77 in Athens on Thursday night.
Diamantidis tallied a game-high 17 points on 3 for 3 shooting from three-point range, dished out seven assists and stole the ball three times. Romain Sato added 16 points and six rebounds while Kostas Kaimakoglou and Steven Smith
posted 13 points each in the victory. Nick Calathes had 12 points and Sarunas Jasikevicius ended with 10 points for the Greens.
“I am surprised the way we played. Yesterday I stated that we were not ready to play a Euroleague game and this might be my hardest premiere ever. Tonight I can say that we played good basketball for many minutes,” Panathinaikos
Head Coach Zeljko Obradovic said after the win.
Kristaps Valters and Hrvoje Peric came off the bench with 13 points each for Unicaja. Nenad Sinanovic contributed 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Earl Rowland finished with 10 points in the loss.
The Greens did not seem bothered at all by the absence of two of their key players Stratos Perperoglou and Kostas Tsartsaris, who were out due to injury. They shot 63.1 percent (12 for 19) from three-point range with Diamantidis,
Kaimakoglou, Smith and Jasikevicius hitting a perfect 3 for 3.
“We faced a lot of problems with injured and ill players, so it is a kind of surprise the way we did it. We were anxious and this became an extra motivation for the whole team,” Panathinaikos forward Kaimakoglou said.
Steven Smith provided a nice kick-start to the Greens, scoring eight of his 13 points in the first quarter, as Panathinaikos held a 25-16 lead after the initial 10 minutes.
Unicaja came out strong in the second quarter and trimmed their deficit to just three, 29-26, early. Panathinaikos then ripped off a 7-0 run for take their first double-digit lead, 36-26. Unicaja tried hard to cut the margin for
next couple of minutes but the Greens hung on to a ten-point lead, 50-40. Unicaja however responded with a 9-2 run in the closing minutes, cutting their deficit to three, 52-49, at halftime.
Panathinaikos turned the game on its head in the third quarter. They got the crowd going in as they outscored Unicaja 25-12 and widened their lead to 16 points, 77-61. The burst sealed the game and despite of some garbage time
shooting from Unicaja, the reigning champions were never bothered.
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