By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
ALBA Berlin tied the regular-season series against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens with an 87-78 victory, in their last homecourt game for the 2021-22 EuroLeague season.
Oscar Da Silva and Christ Koumadje scored 16 and 12 points respectively to lead the way for the German side in this Round 19 makeup contest, helping the team improve to 12-16.
ALBA got ahead with a 15-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back since. The visitors made a 27-16 run in the second quarter to trim the deficit to four points at halftime (44-40) though that comeback effort was cut short in the third period, when ALBA regained a double-digit lead en route to the win.
Maodo Lo, Yovel Zoosman, and Malte Delow all scored 11 points to add up to Da Silva and Koumadje’s efforts, while Tamir Blatt had 9 points.
“We have had a lot of problems this year, but the players are extremely good workers, good people, are committed to the things that we are doing”, said ALBA coach Israel Gonzalez post-game. “We can survive all of these things. We are having a really good season. We have to finish in Monaco and continue to play well.”
Nemanja Nedovic had a nearly perfect scoring night with 27 points for Panathinaikos, though he exited the court late in the game after an apparent twist of his foot. His condition is expected to be evaluated by the club’s medical staff. “The worst thing is it looks like we had a serious injury for [Nemanja] Nedovic”, commented Panathinaikos playcaller Dimitris Priftis.
Ioannis Papapetrou added 15 points and five rebounds for Panathinaikos and Okaro White was added to the list of top scorers with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.
Photo credit: EuroLeague