By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos beat Gran Canaria 99 – 80 on the road and improved its EuroLeague record to 11 – 13. That was just the second away win for the “Greens” this EuroLeague season following the win the victory over Buducnost and their first after nine straight losses far from their home arena.
Keith Langford scored a team-high 18 points while Nick Calathes was “business as usual” with 17 points, nine assists and five rebounds to make up for his six turnovers. Thanks to them plus Thanasis Antetokounmpo and George Papagiannis notching career-highs 16 and 14 points respectively, Panathinaikos controlled most aspects of the game, especially in the fourth period.
Gran Canaria was constantly down since the first half but remained close, backed by Xavi Rabaseda’s EuroLeague career night 21 points plus Jacob Wiley’s quite solid EL debut (16 points, four rebounds). But that was until Panathinaikos turned up its intensity to make it 69 – 84 three minutes into the final quarter after a 3-11 run.
“The team responded very well, but our goal was to come in here and get 85 points“, said Panathinaikos’ coach Rick Pitino after the game. “We felt that, with our defense, if we could get 85, we would be tough to beat. It is not easy to do on the road because this team played Milan to overtime because they got in a shootout with them“.
The hosts were unable to recover from that margin and their opponents cruised to take a win that increases their chances of making the playoffs. Gran Canaria remains second-to-last in the standings, having now dropped to 6 – 18.