Euroleague series turned upside down
Full reversal to the Euroleague series involving Greek teams on March 24, as Panathinaikos grabbed a precious win at Barcelona while Olympiakos suffered a shock loss at home to Monte di Paschi Siena.
Game 2 at Barcelona produced an epic win for Panathinaikos with a 75-71 score that gives the home advantage to the Greek champions with the series now tied at 1-1.
The hosts had a solid start, leading 11-3 and then 28-12, but Panathinaikos fought back from the start of the third period thanks to great performances by Dimitris Diamantidis and Romain Sato in particular.
Barcelona led by seven at 52-45 but the Greens scored a partial 19-7 to turn the game on its head. With the score at 72-64 for Panathinaikos, Barcelona had a last-gasp effort taking the game to 72-71, but could not equalize.
Panathinaikos got nothing less than what it deserved, given it had also come close to beating Barcelona in Game 1 two days earlier.
The series now moves to Athens for Game 3 on March 29 and for Game 4 two days later.
On the other hand, Olympiakos was a shadow of the team that had thrashed Siena by 48 points just a couple of days earlier, going down 82-65 in Piraeus to the Italian champion.
The Reds led 12-10 only to surrender their lead for good (12-22) as the Italians led 39-31 at half-time.
The visitors had clearly got over the shock of their mauling on March 22 and stretched their advantage as the game went on to end up winning by 17 points.
Tied at 1-1, the series is now moving to Italy for Games 3 and 4.
Coach Dusan Ivkovic said Olympiakos can get an away win at Siena and regain home advantage so as to win the series and make the final-four, while Costas Papanikolaou said Olympiakos can win both games the following week.
