By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
ALBA Berlin fought hard and finally put an end to its four-game skid with a 74-65 victory over visiting Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in Round 26 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
After trailing 28-34 at halftime, the Germans erased the deficit in the second half to get on hold of the game while easing into a double-digit lead with just three minutes remaining.
Johannes Thiemann paced Aito Garcia Reneses’ squad with 16 points (4/5 from the three-point line) and Marcus Eriksson tapped 12 points. Maodo Lo filled the stat sheet with 11 points and 7 assists and Simone Fontecchio produced 8 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
“It is very important for our confidence. We lost some close games that maybe we could have closed out. But it was a new game today and we are happy we got the win”, commented Eriksson after the game.
Panathinaikos arrived in Berlin with a two-game winning streak though now falls further down the standings with a 9-15 record. Aaron White’s season-high of 14 points wasn’t enough for the Greens that returned to action after nearly three weeks. Konstantinos Mitoglou had 9 points and 9 rebounds and Giorgos Papagiannis tapped 8 points.
ALBA got its revenge for their Round 15 blowout in Athens and improved its own record to 9-17 to end its February EuroLeague duties on a positive note, despite still remaining far out of the playoffs zone.
Photo: EuroLeague