ALBA fights off Panathinaikos for tight victory

U18 ALBA Berlin opened its Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Munich with a hard-fought 82-78 victory over U18 Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in Group B. Nolan Adekunle paced ALBA with 24 points while Malte Delow poured in 18 points, Elias Roedl had 15 and Ben Lingk added 10 points in victory. Aristotelis Sotiriou led Panathinaikos with 29 points while Georgios Kalianiotis picked up 15 points plus 14 rebounds and Mario Giotis scored 16 points.

The game was tight early on before Lingk scored two baskets in helping ALBA pull ahead 14-6. Panathinaikos was able to hold the German club to just a three-pointer over a 3-minute stretch in pulling within 17-16. And the Greek side was up 21-22 after 10 minutes. The cushion was 21-26 before Adekunle and Delow hit three-pointers to push ALBA up 27-26. Panathinaikos put together a 1-6 run and teams went into the locker room deadlocked 37-37. Sotiriou picked up 5 points in helping Panathinaikos move up 39-44. He added 4 more points and the cushion was 44-51. Roedl punched back with a three-pointer to start an 11-4 spurt to pull even 55-55. And Panathinaikos was up 60-63 after 30 minutes. Panathinaikos was leading 66-69 before Adekunle nailed a pair of three-pointers during a 14-2 run for ALBA to surge ahead 80-71. Sotiriou did not let Panathinaikos go down without a fight with 7 points to get as close as 81-78, but it was not enough.