By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Marius Grigonis beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to hand Panathinaikos Athens a 91 – 90 win over AS Monaco on the road.
That was the first lead in the second half for the Greens that came back from down 12 points in the fourth period to claim victory.
“It’s a slip of a second and you just get the ball and… you shoot,” Grigonis said on his game-winner. Both his team and Monaco are 8 – 7 after this result. “There’s no time to think. You shoot this kind of shots every day during the practices and sometimes you make them in the last seconds of games.”
Elie Okobo had previously put Monaco up by two by hitting a midrange jumper with 2.5 seconds left on the game clock. He also won the foul but intentionally missed the free throw and hit only the backboard so Panathinaikos got the chance for a timeout and the inbounds pass from the baseline, something that the Greek side took great advantage of.
Grigonis finished with 15 points while Kostas Sloukas scored 17 points and Mathias Lessort added 16 points for Panathinaikos. Kendrick Nunn had 13 out of his 14 points in the fourth quarter to lead the comeback of the Greek side.
Panathinaikos’ turn of luck
“A very important victory for us,” Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman said. “We lost three games in overtime and one game in the last possessions. We are the lucky ones now but we played smart. We managed the game. Kendrick Nunn didn’t find his points in the first three quarters but when he started to find his points we ‘broke’ their defense and started to recover.”
Alpha Diallo led the Jordan Loyd-less Monaco with 17 points plus six rebounds. Mike James scored 16 points and dished out six assists Okobo dropped 15 points and Kemba Walker registered a EuroLeague career-high 13 points.
Walker also put Monaco up 78 – 66 with seven minutes to play in a moment where Monaco seemed to control the game completely. Nunn and Lessort made consecutive baskets as Panathinaikos approached closer and Sloukas tied the game at 84.
James won a foul on a 3-point attempt almost half-court and drained free throws to give Monaco an 88 – 84 lead. Sloukas scored a quick basket and Lessort tipped the ball in, tying the score before the last sequence.
“You lose like this once in 10 years,” Monaco coach Sasa Obradovic said. “There were some tactical things we could do to not get in this situation. Like going into the free-throw bonus to make it harder for them.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague