By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Tel Aviv saw a 20-point lead getting almost completely erased by Panathinaikos in less than six minutes but held on to get a 77 – 73 win at home.
A pair of free throws by Scottie Wilbekin with seven seconds to play and a steal by Angelo Caloiaro secured Maccabi’s win. The Yellows were up 64 – 44 with six minutes to play before Panathinaikos began its comeback with a 0 – 12 run in just two minutes, courtesy of Nemanja Nedovic and Daryl Macon.
Maccabi retook a double-digit advantage but Panathinaikos was persistent. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Ioannis Papapetrou brought the Greens at a shooting distance, 74 – 71 with 29 seconds remaining and then Macon made it 75 – 73. On the other end, Wilbekin made it a two-possession game to prevent the upset for his team.
Wilbekin finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists while James Nunnally had 18 points and six rebounds. The latter’s eight points in first quarter were the main reason Maccabi recovered from an early 2-7 start and got the lead by the end of the period, never to trail again.
As Maccabi coach Giannis Sfairopoulos said: “We controlled the game for three periods. In the end, Panathinaikos scored a lot of tough shots. They scored 33 points in the last period even though we kept them to 23 points in the first half. They came back into the game. For sure we take away from the win how we played the first three quarters. And we need to improve at the last minutes. We need to control the game better if something does not go well”.
Macon led Panathinaikos with 17 points. Papapetrou dropped 15 points, Okaro White scored 14 and Nedovic had 13 points.
Former NBA guard Yogi Ferrell finished with three points (1-4 shots) and three assists for Panathinaikos in 10:02 minutes of his EuroLeague debut. “Unfortunately, it was very unfair what we did to ourselves; the way we started the game”, admitted Panathinaikos coach Dimitris Priftis. “But it was very positive the way we reacted in the last quarter. We saw some character and some personality. We got the game close, we had a chance. And of course, we have to build on that in the future.”