Panathinaikos achieved its sixth victory in the last seven European games: 79-81 over the powerful Virtus in Bologna, with a Kendrick Nunn basket in the final breath! With this double, the “greens” remain in second place in the standings and are very close to home advantage for the playoffs.
The “greens” started with 6/6 three-pointers and reached big differences early: 13-24, 22-39, 32-48 with recitals of accuracy by Grant, Sluka. The score at the break was 39-51, but the Italians reduced it to a single-digit score: 53-58 with a three-pointer by Belinelli and baskets by Dobrich. Despite the efforts of Kostas Slukas, Virtus overtook with Lundberg’s three-pointer in the 36th minute: 71-69.
Kendrick Nunn answered with personal actions, 71-74 and Slukas equalized with 2/2 shots on Marco Belinelli’s baskets (76-76). Dobrich made it 79-76 with a 3-pointer, Marius Grigonis tied the game with a basket and a shot at 31′ and Nunn hit the game-winning basket as the final horn sounded.
Kostas Sloukas was the leader of Panathinaikos with 20 points, while Kendrick Nunn scored 7 of his 16 points in the last three minutes. Jerian Grant added 13 and Marius Grigonis 12. Ergin Ataman also used Kalaitzakis, Papapetrou, Hernangometh 3, Mitoglou 7, Lesor 10, K. Antetokounmpo.
From Luca Banki’s Virtus, which counted four consecutive defeats, the former “red” Daniel Hackett scored 3 points and Bryant Dunston 4. Sengelia 19, Belinelli 17, Lundberg 11, Dobrich 11 were distinguished.
The match was attended by approximately 500 Greek fans, while dozens of others were left outside the stadium without tickets. Among the spectators was the owner of KAE Panathinaikos, Dimitris Giannakopoulos.
After tonight’s result, Panathinaikos reached 21-11 and is tied for second place with Monaco and Barcelona, behind Real, who leads with a record of 26-6. Olympiacos, which yesterday defeated Partizan in Belgrade with 69-74, shares with Fenerbahce the fifth place with 20 wins and 12 losses, while Maccabi follows with 19-13 and Virtus completes the eight with 17-15.
The first six teams in the final ranking will qualify directly for the playoffs, while the next four will claim two tickets through play-off matches.
In the rest of their schedule until the finale of the regular season, Panathinaikos will face Bayern in Munich and Alba in OAKA. Olympiacos will return to Belgrade to play with Red Star, while in the last game they welcome Fener.
#Virtus #Panathinaikos #Bologna #Nan
