By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Thanks to a great performance in the second quarter (21-12), Laboral Kutxa easily beat Panathinaikos (84-68) at home and now is two steps away from qualifying to the Final 4, whereas the Greens will try to even the series on Friday.
For the winners, Darius Adams had 20 points, with Giannis Bourousis (15 points, six rebounds, 21 in the ranking system) and Mike James (11 points, six assists) offering decent solutions as well. On the other hand, Miroslav Raduljica scored 21 points and grabbed six boards for the losing squad.
Both teams made a good start to the game (10-10) and things didn’t change much until the end of the first quarter, which saw the Spaniards have a two-point advantage (18-16).
Later, the hosts enhanced their overall performance and quickly extended their lead to double digits, thanks to a 16-6 run (34-22). Laboral Kutxa continued to have control of the game and closed the first half in front by 11 (39-28).
In the second half, the Spaniards managed to play very well offensively (47-34, 56-36) and scored 25 total points to comfortably retain their lead, after 30 minutes in the game (64-49).
In the fourth quarter, the situation remained the same (73-53, 79-64), as the visitors were unable to make a come-back, playing mediocre on both ends of the floor. Consequently, Laboral Kutxa claimed an easy home win to come closer to the Final 4, with Game 2 taking place on Friday night.