By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens recovered to take revenge from Valencia with a 91-72 win at home in Round 23 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague to improve to an 8-14 record in the standings. The Spanish team had won their Round 9 clash 95-83 back in November.
The Greens overcame a defeat by Real Madrid earlier this week to take Valencia by storm in the first half (48-34, 20′) and managed to stay in charge until the end.
Nemanja Nedovic once again paced Oded Kattash’s squad with 16 points, 7 assists, Konstantinos Mitoglou followed with 11 points and 7 rebounds, while Aaron White tapped 12 points and 4 rebounds. Despite Valencia’s reaction in the third half, Mitoglou and Nedovic managed to keep the Greens on top of their game, ending the week in the best way possible after losing two of their last three games.
Adding up to the top scorers’ efforts, Giorgos Papagiannis left the court with 8 points and 9 rebounds for a team-high PIR of 17 and Lefteris Bochoridis contributed 12 points.
“Not always does the game plan work the same way, but I like the effort. I told the guys to start this game in the way that we finished in Madrid. Over there, we had a great second half defensively, and I like the way the players reacted. That was the key for this game”, stated Kattash after the game.
Valencia ends this week fruitless as they are going through a rough patch and slipped their third game in a row, to fall to an 11-12 record. Klemen Prepelic tried to save Valencia with a late surge and finished the game with 20 points, as Martin Hermannsson and Vanja Marinkovic tapped 13 and 11 points respectively for the visiting side.
Photo: Eurokinissi