By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
In the 2022 Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament’s opener between Maccabi Playtica Tel Aviv and EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, the team coached by Ettore Messina won 80-71.
The reigning Italian champions, even without Kevin Pangos, Gigi Datome, Shavon Shields, and Johannes Voigtmann, started this tournament in the best way possible, thanks to a great offensive performance by the newcomer Nazareth Mitrou-Long who finished the game with 19 points.
As coach Ettore Messina said about his new player: “He’s a very important player for us because he has the ability to create a shot. He’s a great guy, very humble, he works a lot every day. He can give us a lot on the court”.
The Israeli team, which had to compete without Eurobasket champion Lorenzo Brown, couldn’t keep the rhythm after a pretty good start. They were leading 24-15 at the end of the first quarter but Milano reacted swiftly and led by five at halftime (37-32).
Deshawn Thomas added 15 points for the winners, while Darrun Hilliard with 18 was the top scorer of Maccabi and Alex Poythress added 12 points.
At 20:00 CET, the hosts of Panathinaikos will face the EuroLeague reigning champions, Anadolu Efes. The winner will face Milan in tomorrow’s final.