By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Okaro White and Nemanja Nedovic stepped up for Panathinaikos OPAP and led the team to a 76-63 road win over ASVEL in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.
Nemanja Nedovic finished the game with 18 points but 15 of those came in the first half as PAO created a 46-32 advantage before the break.
However, ASVEL made a comeback sparked by James Gist and young Victor Wembanyama and cut the deficit to just two points in the fourth quarter (59-57) with six minutes left.
The crunch time, to the Greek team’s fortune, went completely in their favor and White was the main force behind the 17-6 run with nine points, pushing Panathinaikos to the double-digit win.
“First of all, I want to congratulate my guys. The most important thing to emphasize is that we kept our composure when the game started to go to the side of ASVEL, as well as the momentum. At that moment, we kept our composure, we scored some crucial baskets, we had a couple of good defenses, and finally we won,” coach Dimitris Priftis said after the game.
White in the end scored a total of 19 points while Georgios Papagiannis added 15 and ten rebounds. For ASVEL, Dylan Osetkowski played a big role with 18 points in addition to Chris Jones and David Lighty’s ten each.
White was happy with the win, especially on the road.
“We are satisfied. Every time you get a road win, you are satisfied. I think we have a group of guys that plays well, and we fought hard. It’s very important. We have been struggling all season, so we are trying to finish out strong, to fight hard and play hard.”
Panathinaikos improved to 6-17 while ASVEL now holds a 9-16 record.