By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos entered the 2019-2020 EuroLeague with an 87 – 82 win over Crvena Zvezda in the OAKA Arena.
DeShaun Thomas posted a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds while Nick Calathes added 21 points and seven assists for Panathinaikos. Calathes also drained the 3-pointer that made it 81 – 72 with 1:57 remaining to push back the Red Star comeback attempt from a 14 points down, 63 – 49 near the end of the third period.
Red Star had a great start to take an 8 – 17 lead eight minutes into the game thanks to buckets by former Panathinaikos forward James Gist (22 points, seven rebounds). But the Greens reacted to balance the game in the second period and dominated after the break to establish an advantage that paced them until the end.
Gist, who played with Panathinaikos from 2013 to 2019, was also honored by the Greens before the match for his contribution to the club.
Tyrese Rice scored 12 points in 14 minutes and dished out a quite impressive assist in his EuroLeague return after 2017. Jimmer Fredette had 11 points (2/4 2-pointers, 1/2 3-pointers) in 25:16 in his debut in the competition.
“[Jimmer] Fredette was very important as a creator on the floor, he created the whole game, and [Georgios] Papagiannis with his defense helped us”, said after the game Panathinaikos coach Argiris Pedoulakis, “It was a difficult game, the opening game of the season, we weren’t where we wanted to be in the first half, but in the second half we were better, and I think we deserved to win.”
Billy Baron (15 points) and Stratos Perperoglou (15 points) also stood out from Zvezda. The latter dropped seven of his points to push the Serbian squad towards making it 76 – 70 after falling behind with 14.
“I think what we learned is that you have to play 40 minutes in those kinds of games and not having lapses as we did in the third quarter”, added Zvezva coach Milan Tomic with Nick Calathes considering the anxiety of the season opener as one of the reasons of the close first half: “The first game of the season is always tough – a lot of people have jitters and we had a lot of new guys. In the second half, we were better, it’s nice to get the win and everyone contributed.”
Meanwhile, this was the first-ever career double-double of DeShaun Thomas
It was quite a night at OAKA as the season started with a win for the Greens
Photo credit: Eurokinissi