Rejuvenated PAO downs Real Madrid
It appears that Real Madrid suits Panathinaikos, as the Greens produced their best performance to date this season to beat the Spaniards 79-68 for the Euroleague in Athens on Thursday.
It was against Real again that Panathinaikos had shown signs of greatness earlier this season, when the Greens had challenged the Blancos all the way in Madrid to go down by seven points in the end then.
Yet this time Panathinaikos played a great game both in attack and in defense against a rather mooted Real that only led in the first period by up to seven points (16-9).
The Greens came back and led by seven themselves at half-time (42-35) before stretching their lead up to 15 points in the third period (61-46), after a fantastic performance by Stephan Lasme, scorer of 15 points on the night from five out of five two-pointers and five out of six free throws. He also collected eight rebounds.
Andy Panko grabbed another 14 while Jonas Maciulis notched up 12.
This was the third win in six matches in the group for Panathinaikos that gives it fresh hopes for qualification to the next round and the edge over Real in the head-to-head record, should the two teams finish level on points.
An interesting conclusion from this game is that the Greens can also win even without the help of Sofoklis Schortsanitis, who only scored two points on Thursday.
Panathinaikos’s next game is in Italy against Cantu.
