By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With Konstantinos Mitouglou having a career-best with 29 points and 12 rebounds, while Nemanja Nedovic added 21 points, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens got an easy 94-78 win over Khimki Moscow Region in a result which was not at all unexpected.
“I’m very happy, especially that my team won. We followed the game plan and played physical”, said Mitoglou after the final buzzer.
Panathinaikos missed two starters in Ioannis Papapetrou and Giorgos Papagiannis. However, Khimki didn’t have injured Alexey Shved, Janis Timma, Devin Booker, Egor Vyaltsev, and the duo of Jonas Jerebko and Greg Monroe who are in the exit door.
As Nedovic said: “I feel great, especially because when we have a couple of guys down I feel like I need to take more responsibility and try to lead this team to victories. That’s what I tried to do today.”
Jordan Mickey finished the night with 25 points and Errick McCollum scored 17 points for the losing side, but the game was over by halftime when Panathinaikos jumped to a 46-33 lead after Khimki trailed just by three (23-20) at the end of the first quarter.
The hosts never looked back, they led by 21 (65-44) in the third, and the best that Khimki could do was cut the point difference to 12 (86-74) three minutes before the final buzzer. It was the win no7 for Panathinaikos in the season, while Khimki dropped to 2-19.
However, Panathinaikos coach Oded Kattash wanted more focus, especially in the second half: “I think for 20 minutes we were doing a great job defensively. We need to learn how to finish the job. We lost the concentration, especially in the second half defensively. So, basically, it’s about how we get the flow on offense. We shared the ball better. Defensively we need to be more consistent.”