MADRID, 22 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Barcelona fell this Friday 89-81 in their visit to Panathinaikos, despite the contribution of the Spanish center Willy Hernangómez, in a match corresponding to matchday 31 of the Regular Phase of the Euroleague and which helped the Athenians to tighten the fight for a highly coveted second place.
At the OAKA Altion, equality prevailed in the first quarter, which closed (20-23) with a triple by Kendrick Nunn to avoid Barça’s rise. However, with the score at 24-27 after a rough start to the second period, a missed triple by Kostas Sloukas gave way to a great rival streak.
Álex Abrines then appeared to score, he did, from beyond the arc. Added to that were two baskets in a row by Ricky Rubio and then a misfortune by Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, who saved an out-of-bounds goal by diving to the ground; but he accidentally gave the ball to Abrines, who assisted Nico Laprovittola, and he hit a cornered triple (24-37).
With the wind in their favor, Willy Hernangómez became strong in the low post and the visitor’s lead grew to 24-40. Roger Grimau’s pupils managed that distance (31-46) and stunned a Panathinaikos team that did not give up, as Nunn demonstrated with his steal and counterattack to close the second quarter by scoring at the buzzer (34-46).
The Greek team was still alive and took advantage of the time in the locker room to change their mentality. After the restart, an 8-2 partial tightened a match that little by little turned green. Although Jan Vesely scored two good baskets from the basket to break the momentum (47-54), veteran Kostas Sloukas emerged to make Panathinaikos intimidate.
Marius Grigonis culminated the local comeback with an offensive rebound that he transformed into a tap, receiving a personal foul and materializing the 2+1 (56-55). The duel went through a nervous phase there, with the OAKA stands exerting pressure that Abrines extinguished with an important triple (58-61).
Mathias Lessort responded correctly on behalf of the PAO, leaving the battle at 60-61 at the conclusion of the third period. Once again Abrines wanted the mantle of hero among the Blaugranas, with a frontal triple to open the fourth episode of the match and which, despite everything, motivated the pupils of an Ergin Ataman as gesticulating as usual.
First Konstantinos Mitoglou, then Sloukas and later Nunn hammered Barça with triples. The Athenian team, which had unnerved an opponent without many ideas, pulled away until 76-70. It was time for talent and Jabari Parker hit a triple, which made it 76-73 with 4:47 left before the final horn, before Grimau was whistled for a technical.
It was after a nice basket by Nunn, setting up Parker with his quick cut, when the culé coach received that foul for protesting. Sloukas scored the immediate free throw and then Nunn smashed the rim, which was linked with another basket by Mitoglou to leave the victory seen for judgment (83-73), although the fight was directed to other objectives.
At stake was overcoming the points differential, which favored Barça with a +8 after their 80-72 victory during matchday 6. A three-pointer by Sloukas confirmed that Ataman’s men were very serious about that mission and later a ‘ alley-oop’ by Jerian Grant for Lessort’s dunk made it 89-76 that Abrines reduced with a success in the paint.
Grant missed the next Greek attack and then Laprovittola was fouled, with two free throws in his hands; The Argentine scored the first and missed the second, grabbed his own rebound and forced another foul when he got up to shoot. Similar situation, which the Barça point guard resolved by converting both free throws (89-81).
There were only 1.2 left for the game to conclude, but Nunn’s shot at the buzzer from the side crashed into the rim and, therefore, the point differential that could be vital to unraveling the classification of this Regular Phase was equal. Now with a balance of 20-11, there is a triple tie between PAO, Barça and AS Monaco.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: PANATHINAIKOS, 89 – BARÇA, 81 (34-46, at half-time).
–EQUIPMENT.
PANATHINAIKOS: Nunn (22), Grant (9), Grigonis (8), Mitoglou (19) and Lessort (13) –starting quintet–; Kalaitzakis (-), Balcerowski (-), Sloukas (18), Hernangómez (-) and Vildoza (-).
BARÇA: Jokubaitis (6), Satoransky (12), Kalinic (4), Parker (9) and Vesely (13) –starting quintet–; Da Silva (2), Rubio (4), Hernangómez (13), Abrines (12) and Laprovittola (6).
–PARTIALS: 20-23, 14-23, 26-15 and 29-20.
–REFEREES: Difallah, Vilius and Rossi. They eliminated Sloukas at Panathinaikos and Vesely at Barça due to personal fouls.
–PAVILLION: OAKA Altion.