Pappas sinks Fenerbahce, Reds stay on top
Olympiakos consolidated itself as joint leader of the Euroleague table with its win over Khimki in Piraeus on Thursday, but it was Panathinaikos’s comeback triumph over European champion Fenerbahce that stole the show on Friday.
Nikos Pappas scored a buzzer-beating three-pointer to gift Panathinaikos a 70-68 win over Zeljko Obradovic’s Fener that had led for most of the game at the Olympic Sports Hall in Athens.
The Istanbul club advanced by up to eight points and was in control of the match due to the poor shooting rate of some of the host’s best scorers. However from the third period the Greens made up for their missed shots with their energy in defense to reduce the distance and take the game down to the wire.
With just a second left on the clock Pappas took a triple under pressure and made it in epic circumstances, to take his point tally to 24 on the night and his team to two wins in four games so far.
It was quite an irony for Fenerbahce that had 7/13 three-pointers to sink in the end due to a triple by Panathinaikos.
Olympiakos enjoyed a great night in attack at the Peace and Friendship Stadium to beat its Russian opponent 92-75 and reach its fourth victory in as mane games.
Despite the permanent absence of captain Vassilis Spanoulis, Olympiakos has crafted a great teamwork repeated time and again in the Euroleague. On Thursday the Reds had 17 assists and a solid scoring rate (63 percent in two-pointers) and left former coach Giorgos Bartzokas – who now guides Khimki – scratching his head over how to tackle the multitude of options the Greeks had in the game.
Nikola Milutinov had a second great match in two days, scoring 17 points (8/8 field goals), while Giorgos Printezis added another 15.
