2020-21Regular SeasonRound 29
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 81
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 63
March 11, 2021 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 OAKA Altion

Greens snap losing streak by beating Maccabi

Panathinaikos OPAP Athens got back on the winning path by defeating visiting Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 81-63 at OAKA on Thursday night. The hosts rolled in the first quarter to lead 25-9, but Maccabi managed to trim the deficit to only 3 points at the end of the third. A strong defensive effort, which held the visitors scoreless for 5 minutes, allowed the Greens to recover a double-digit advantage midway through the last quarter and escape with the win. Panathinaikos snapped a three-game losing streak to improve to 10-17, while Maccabi dropped to 11-16. Ioannis Papapetrou led the winners with 20 points on 4-of-6 three-point shooting. He was followed by Aaron White with 15 points and 7 rebounds, Dinos Mitoglu provided 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists and Mario Hezonja added another 12 points for the hosts. Scottie Wilbekin bounced back from a scoreless game against Valencia Basket with 14 points on 4-of-9 three-point shooting to pace Maccabi.

Hezonja fueled the hosts with a three and a monster dunk in the early going, then White joined in with a couple of buckets to give the Greens an 11-3 edge after 4 minutes. Chris Jones took over both offensively and defensively trying to push forward Maccabi, but unsuccessfully. Eleftherios Bochoridis and Papapetrou scored, White followed with 5 points in a row and Hezonja hit from downtown to cap a 12-0 run that made it 25-7. Even though Bryant broke the trend with a layup at the end of the first quarter, the hosts didn’t need too much to retain a 34-16 margin early in the second. The visitors stepped up in defense, as Wilbekin’s first three ignited his team on offense for a while. Sandy Cohen reduced it to 34-23, but White and Mitoglu combined to prevent Maccabi from getting closer. Another three by Wilbekin made it 43-30 at halftime.

Jones and Elijah Bryant showed up right after the break to trim the deficit to single-digits, 43-35. Panathinaikos reacted quickly as Hezonja banked in a one-leg shot and Howard Sant-Roos and Papapetrou buried back-to-back threes to restore a comfortable cushion, 51-35, to the Greens. Papapetrou remained hot and solved most of Panathinaikos's problems on offense, but the momentum seemed to have swung. Tyler Dorsey and Wilbekin combined from behind the arc to reduce the gap to 56-48 as Angelo Caloiaro and another bomb by John DiBartolomeo preceded a buzzer-beater tip-in by Ante Zizic that made it a one-possession game, 58-55, entering the last quarter. Panathinaikos reacted in style, holding Maccabi scoreless for 5 minutes to spark a 9-0 run which included a monster dunk by Ben Bentil to recover a safe margin, 67-55. Wilbekin and Dorsey tried to reanimate the visitors from the perimeter, but Papapetrou was not about letting his team down. He first scored a backdoor baseline layup and then strung together a couple of threes to extend the margin to 77-59 to seal the outcome.

It’s so good to be back

Ioannis Papapetrou had missed the last two games, but he looked in pretty good shape. He led all scorers with 20 points and became the go-to-guy for Panathinaikos when Maccabi got close. His 8 points in a row, including back-to-back threes, late in the fourth quarter, confirmed the win.

Great start, great ending

The hosts built their win using a strong start and a strong finish. They opened the game with a 25-7 tear and outscored Maccabi 23-8 in the last quarter.

Rally for nothing

Maccabi seemed to be against the ropes right after halftime when they trailed 56-40 midway through the third quarter. But a 2-15 run in 4:30 behind triples by Tyler Dorsey, Scottie Wilbekin and John DiBartolomeo brought the Israeli champs back into the game. The Greens replied with a 9-0 run to open the fourth that aborted the rally.

Mission: Accomplished

Panathinaikos head coach Oded Kattash emphasized how important it was to stop Maccabi’s backcourt and it seemed his players stuck to the plan. Even though Wilbekin scored 14 on 5-of-11 shooting, the trio of Elijah Bryant, Tyler Dorsey and Chris Jones were limited to 5-of-16 on two-pointers and 2-of-9 on threes, combined.

Next up

Maccabi's next game will be a makeup from Round 23 against Anadolu Efes Istanbul on Tuesday, March, 16. Panathinaikos will host Crvena Zvezda MTS Belgrade on Friday, March 19.

Ioannis Papapetrou - Panathinaikos OPAP Athens - EB20
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: RADOVIC, SRETEN; JAVOR, DAMIR; SILVA, SERGIO
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens25181523
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv921258
End of Quarter1234
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens25435881
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv9305563
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 MACK, SHELVIN 9:53   0/1       1 1 1 1 3   1 2 1 -3
6 PAPAGIANNIS, GEORGIOS 20:33 8 4/4     1 4 5   1 1 2   1   14
7 BOCHORIDIS, ELEFTHERIOS 17:48 5 1/2 1/2     2 2 3 1 1     4 1 5
8 AUGUSTE, ZACH DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 PAPAPETROU, IOANNIS 33:07 20 4/11 4/7   2 3 5 1 1 2   1 3 1 12
11 HEZONJA, MARIO 23:35 12 3/4 2/6 0/1   4 4 3 3 2     1 3 16
12 DIPLAROS, NIKOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
14 KASELAKIS, LEONIDAS 2:01     0/1                       -1
30 WHITE, AARON 29:15 15 5/6 0/3 5/6 1 6 7 2 1 1   1 3 4 19
44 MITOGLOU, KONSTANTINOS 22:45 12 4/6   4/7 3 5 8 4 1 2     1 6 23
50 BENTIL, BEN 10:32 4 1/4 0/2 2/2   1 1 1   1 1   2 1  
74 SANT-ROOS, HOWARD 30:31 5 1/2 1/2 0/1 2 4 6 6 2 4 1   1 1 13
Team           2 3 5               5
Totals 200:00 81 23/40 8/23 11/17 11 33 44 21 11 17 4 3 18 18 103
        57.5% 34.8% 64.7%
Head coach: KATTASH, ODED
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 BRYANT, ELIJAH 12:48 5 0/4 1/2 2/2   2 2 1   2   2   3 2
1 WILBEKIN, SCOTTIE 26:33 14 1/2 4/9     3 3 1 1 2     1 1 11
3 JONES, CHRIS 22:50 6 3/8 0/2   1 2 3 1 1 2 1 1 2    
4 CALOIARO, ANGELO 27:52 4 1/2   2/2       3 1 2     1 2 6
5 HUNTER, OTHELLO 16:29 1 0/4   1/2 2 2 4 1 1 2     3 1 -2
6 COHEN, SANDY 8:45 4 2/2       1 1   1       2   4
7 CASSPI, OMRI 5:43 2 1/4     1 1 2       1       2
11 DORSEY, TYLER 23:58 9 2/4 1/5 2/3 1 3 4   1 4   1 3 5 4
12 DIBARTOLOMEO, JOHN 12:13 9   3/6   1   1 3 1 1 1   3 2 10
14 BLAYZER, OZ 6:42     0/1     1 1                
17 BENDER, DRAGAN 13:00   0/1 0/2   1 1 2 2 1       2 1 1
23 ZIZIC, ANTE 23:07 9 2/5   5/6 2 6 8 1   1     2 3 14
Team           1 2 3     1         2
Totals 200:00 63 12/36 9/27 12/15 10 24 34 13 8 17 3 4 19 18 54
        33.3% 33.3% 80%
Head coach: SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS

Head Coaches

KATTASH, ODED
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"It is a great win for us. I think we won the game defensively, on the set game we did a good job, our big guys played amazing against their guards, on switching defenses according to our game plan. As long as we didn’t turn the ball over, and we played slow offensively, we could control them. I really like how the guys reacted to the game plan. I’m very proud of the players."
SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
"I want to congratulate the team of Panathinaikos. They won because they played better for most of the game. It’s obvious, from the score, that we didn’t start and we didn’t finish the game well. I think that in the second period and mainly in the third period we tried to play more aggressive on defense, we scored in open-court situations. We came back and got within 3 points, but we should have been more aggressive to fight for the game. They showed the quality they have, we missed some shots and we had 2-3 minutes that we were not good, and that was the game."

Players

WHITE, AARON
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"The secret of the victory is that we had the right options in offense from the beginning. We had energy. Maybe our only bad point is some mistakes we made in the second half. However, from the beginning of the game, we made a dominant appearance that helped us reach an easy victory. I feel great in Panathinaikos. I really like Coach Katash and the way he plays."
PAPAPETROU, IOANNIS
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"I love to play basketball. It was a hard period for me, obviously, with COVID and my injury before that. This past month, I haven't been playing and enjoying and doing what I love. But now I'm back. I feel like I still have to build up my physique and my readiness; I'm not 100%. But I feel good to be back. We had to stay composed for 40 minutes. It's very tough to be ready and have good chemistry with the new additions, the team changes. Obviously, Nedovic is out and he's a big part of the team. But I think we need to execute and stay composed for 40 minutes. We tried to do that, and we came out with the win."
MITOGLOU, KONSTANTINOS
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"I am very happy, first of all because we won. I’m happy too because I evolved my game, the coach let me play my game and I was able to help my teammates, which makes me happy. That’s the first part, improving yourself, and then take the win, which is the most important thing."
ZIZIC, ANTE
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
"We weren't aggressive tonight for 40 minutes like we should be. The second and third quarters were good, but we couldn't keep it up going into the fourth and we came out flat in the final minutes. It's a tough loss but we will keep on fighting and playing with pride for each and every game."
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