By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
With six players scoring in double figures, Panathinaikos entered the Pavlos Giannakopoulos preseason tournament with a 86 – 71 win at home over EuroLeague defending champion Anadolu Efes.
Panathinaikos will face Olimpia Milano in the Final (24/9) while Efes will play vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Nate Wolters, Paris Lee, Arturas Gudaitis and George Papagiannis completed the game with 14 points apiece, the latter also contributing six rebounds. George Kalaitzakis had 12 points and Derrick Williams notched 10 points plus six boards in a very balanced offensive performance for the Greens.
Ante Zizic scored a game-high 18 points for Efes while Vasilije Micic dropped 15 points and dished out five assists. Tibor Pleiss had 11 points on 3-4 3-pointers.
Panathinaikos entered the game hot to dominate the first quarter 27 – 16 and then moved up 44 – 29 before closing halftime with a 51 – 34 advantage. Efes, that is without injured superstar guard Shane Larkin, fell behind even by 20 after by break but began to trim that deficit piece by piece to approach 67 – 62 early in the fourth period.
That was the closest Efes went since Panathinaikos responded with a 6 – 0 run and then preserved a double-digit lead for the rest of the match.