Panathinaikos confirmed their promotion in Kaunas, where they celebrated their third Euroleague win in a row. Klever won 81:67 against Zalgiris in the 11th round of the Euroleague, making their second European double this year and improving their record to 5-6. On the other hand, the Lithuanians fell to 6-5.

Seminary in defense and attack in the first half laid the foundation for the success of the Greek team, which relied on the offensive qualities of Derrick Williams (25b) and Dwayne Bacon (19b, 8b) in the second, “erasing” any attempts to overthrow the Lithuanians. Now Panathinaikos is focused on the derby with Olympiacos at SEF (5/12) in the 8th round of the A1 men’s/basketball league, the psychology is on top!

Keenan Evans scored 18 points for Zalgiris, who lost at home in the Euroleague for the first time this year.

Quarters: 13-27, 28-44, 53-60, 67-81

Aggressive pluralism, no errors and a “draw” defense made up Panathinaikos’ image in the first quarter, during which the Greens scored a 14-point cushion, having achieved their best European start this year.

“Performing” from medium and long distance, in fact, “clover” ran away from +12 (6-18) in the 7th minute, and with Ponitka, also connecting from 6.75, he remained at a safe distance until 13-27 of the first period .

As Bacon remained “hot” from the perimeter and showed the necessary return in defense, Panathinaikos got off with a double score in the 14th minute (18-36), and even when Žalgiris tried to react by scoring a partial score of 7-2 (25- 38 to 18′), he took care of Papayannis near the basket to… extinguish the Lithuanians’ impulse by going to the dressing room at +16 (28-44).

With Evans finding a rhythm from 6.75 and scoring 11 points in the third period while the defense limited Panathinaikos’s production, Žalgiris put up an impressive 20–10 hitting streak until the 28th minute, cutting the lead to single singles. difference (48-54) and return to the game.

A personal score of 6:0 by Williams kept the “clover” in the standing position, but Dimsy’s three-pointer at the end of the third quarter kept “Zalgiris” in a threatening position (53:60).

Zalgiris’ counterattack continued in… the epilogue of the match, literally at arm’s length (58-62 at 31 minutes). However, initially with Bacon and at the most critical moment with Williams, Panathinaikos found the solutions they were looking for in attack, breaking out in the 37th minute and again with a double-digit number (65-77), and with going into defense … the equation for the last two minutes “closed” the “double” of “clover”.

REFEREES: Geretuelo, Nikolic, Tepenie

Compositions:
ZALGIRIS (Kazis Maksvytis): Evans 18 (4), Lekavičius, Hayes 10, Smits 2, Birutis 4, Brazdeikis 7 (1), Dimsa 4 (1), Kavanaugh 3 (1), Butkevicius 6, Ulanovas 10.

PANATHINAIKOS (Dejan Radonich): P. Kalaitsakis 2, Walters 11 (1), Lee 5 (1), Papagyannis 6, Williams 25 (2), G. Kalaitsakis, Bacon 19 (1), Ponitka 9 (1), Mantsoukas, Gudaitis 4.