2009-10Regular SeasonRound 10
January 13, 2010 CET: 20:30
Local time: 20:30 WESER-EMS-HALLE

Panathinaikos beat EWE Baskets Oldenburg 64-67

Injury-riddled Panathinaikos found tough sledding in the final game of the regular season before using its experience to pull out a 64-67 road win over EWE Baskets Oldenburg on Wednesday. The game did not ultimately affect the standings as Panathinaikos improved to 8-2 and was tied for the Group D lead with Real Madrid, but finished second due to having lost both their games. Oldenburg finished last at 1-9, but having won its only game in the season opener on the road, spent the last night trying to give the home fans a thrill. The hosts led 62-60 with under 5 minutes left, but the Panathinaikos defense made sure of the victory down the stretch. Mike Batiste led the winners with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Drew Nicholas followed him with 14 points, including 4 three-pointers. Nick Calathes added 10 for the Greens, including some key plays late. For Oldenburg, Ricky Paulding shook off early missed to hit 4 of 10 triples on the way to 19 points. Je'Kel Foster added 15 for the hosts, while Milan Majstorovic scored 12 points and pulled 9 rebounds. Panathinaikos was playing without injured big guns Nikola Pekovic, Dimitris Diamantidis and Vassilis Spanoulis, while Oldenburg was missing key player Jasmin Perkovic.

Panathinaikos went directly to Batiste in the post for the game's first basket. Oldenburg got on the board when Majstorovic finished a fastbreak, but Batiste answered with a jump-hook in the lane. No one scored for a while after that, sending a signal about a defensive-minded first half. After Antonis Fotsis put back an offensive rebound, he fed Batiste for another score at 2-8. After a timeout, Nicholas found Fotsis alone for a big triple to make it 2-11, which looked like handwriting on the wall considering the pre-game positions of these teams. After a pair of free throws by Paulding, Nicholas drained his own triple at 4-14 as the Panathinaikos defense seemed to stop everyone except Majstorovic, who now went baseline for a dunk. After a steal, however, Foster joined him with a jumper from the wing, but Georgi Shermadini answered for the Greens by finishing a pick-.and -roll. When Calathes fed Milenko Tepic for a fastbreak layup the visitors were ahead by double, 10-20 after 10 minutes.

A couple of scoreless minutes passed in the second quarter before Josh Carter rattled in an extra-deep triple that pleased the Oldenburg crowd. It continued to be all about defense, but now as much Oldenburg's as that of its more famous guests. Calathes and Carter traded free throws before Panathinaikos went back to Batiste for its first basket of the quarter at 14-23. Ruben Boumtje-Boutmje got a free throw and a dunk for Oldenburg at 17-23, but Greens answerd with Batiste inside again. Pualding got a three-pointer to fall at 20-27, but quick as that, Calathes scored on driving layup-plus-free throw to restore an eight-point margin, 20-28. Free throws were traded until Foster's triple pushed Oldenburg as close as 24-30, but just as quickly, Nicholas responded from the same distance to lead Panathinaikos into halftime with a 25-33 advantage.

When Nicholas started the second half booming in a three-pointer, Panathinaikos had a double-digit lead again that Stratos Perperoglou liked enough to add to it from downtown at 26-39. Oldenburg decided to try that strategy as first Majstorovic and then Paulding buried long balls to suddenly make it 37-41. Again, the answer was swift from the Greens, with Nicholas firing in a jumper. But this time, Paulding was just as quick to answer, again from long range. Panathinaikos needed a timeout, but when Majstorovic rebounded and passed long to Paulding for a layup, the hosts were within 42-43. Again, Nicholas wasn't about to give up the lead. His next shot from long-range went down with a swish before free throws by Batiste put up a 42-48 score. But Oldenburg wasn't flinching. Foster appeared with a new three-pointer before a layup by Marko Scekic left a 49-50 score after 30 minutes.

The Oldenburg fans hit the roof as Carter opened the fourth quarter firing their team in front, 52-50, from long distance. The Greens answered with free throws by Batiste and a go-ahead layup by Tepic, but the battle had already been joined. Soon, Scekic hit one game-tying basket and fed Majstorovic to dunk for another at 56-56. Tepic kept Panathinaikos ahead at the foul line, and when Foster tied again with a layup, Calathes came through with the keep-ahead drive for the Greens. It was now 58-60, with 5 minutes left. After a timeout, Majstorovic tied it up again at the foul line, then a three-point miss by Panathinaikos sent Foster for a go-ahead layup at 62-60 with just over 3 minutes left. Who else but Batiste answered with a jumper and a defensive rebound good for a foul shot to take the lead back at 62-63. Jason Gardner missed his eight triple without a make, the rebound of which Fotsis parlayed into 2 more free throws and a 62-65 scoreboard. When Oldenburg missed and lost the rebound again, Sarunas Jasikevicius made a pull-up jumper in the lane, allowing Panathinaikos to mop up a tough last regular season victory and look forward to the Top 16.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Euroleague.net
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Referees: PUKL,SASA; TAURINO, PAOLO; JURAS, JASMINA
Attendance: 3637
By Quarter1234
EWE Baskets10152415
Panathinaikos20131717
End of Quarter1234
EWE Baskets10254964
Panathinaikos20335067
EWE Baskets
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 SCEKIC, MARKO 22:05 4 2/7 0/1     2 2 2   1 1   3 3 2
5 BULJEVIC, MARCO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 STRAUCH, DANIEL 2:44                         1   -1
8 FOSTER, JEKEL 35:30 15 4/7 2/6 1/2   3 3 4 2 2     4 4 14
9 NJEI, ACHA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 MAJSTOROVIC, MILAN 33:31 12 3/5 1/4 3/4 4 5 9   3 1 2   5 4 18
19 HAIN, DANIEL DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
22 GARDNER, JASON 29:59 2 1/2 0/8   2 4 6 4   4     4 2 -3
23 PAULDING, RICKEY 35:49 19 2/4 4/10 3/5   2 2             3 14
24 CARTER, JOSH 19:00 7 0/1 2/4 1/2 1 1 2   1       3 1 4
44 BOUMTJE BOUMTJE, RUBEN 21:22 5 2/5   1/4 4 2 6   1   1   2 2 7
Team           3   3               3
Totals 200:00 64 14/31 9/33 9/17 14 19 33 10 7 8 4 0 22 19 58
        45.2% 27.3% 52.9%
Head coach: KRUNIC, PREDRAG
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
Panathinaikos
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 TEPIC, MILENKO 27:13 6 2/3 0/1 2/2 1 2 3 2   3     4 3 5
7 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 14:19 3 0/1 1/2     1 1 1   1     3   -1
8 BATISTE, MIKE 30:54 21 8/13   5/6 2 7 9   1 2   1 1 4 25
9 FOTSIS, ANTONIS 24:25 7 1/1 1/2 2/2 1 4 5 1         2 2 12
11 NICHOLAS, DREW 31:14 14 1/4 4/6     2 2 3 1       4 1 12
12 TSARTSARIS, KOSTAS 15:35 2 0/4   2/2 1 2 3   1 1   1   4 4
15 CALATHES, NICK 32:15 10 3/4 0/2 4/7   3 3 3 1 3   1 2 7 12
16 SHERMADINI, GIORGI 9:06 2 1/1     1 1 2     2     2    
17 VERGINIS, DIMITRIOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 BOGRIS, GEORGIOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
19 JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS 14:59 2 1/2 0/2         1   1   1 2 1 -3
Team           1 7 8     1         7
Totals 200:00 67 17/33 6/15 15/19 7 29 36 11 4 14 0 4 20 22 73
        51.5% 40% 78.9%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO

Head Coaches

KRUNIC, PREDRAG
EWE Baskets
"First of all, I have to congratulate my players for the way they played tonight. I think we didn’t play well in the first quarter. At that point, my players still had too much respect for Panathinaikos. But we played a far better game in the second half. We were aggressive on both ends of the floor and made some good plays offensively as well as defensively. I too want to thank our fans, who supported us very well throughout this whole Euroleague season."
OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Panathinaikos
"This was a tough and difficult game for us. I think Oldenburg played a very aggressive game tonight and showed why they won the championship last year. The game was very close until the last minute because my team did not box out properly and allowed Oldenburg to get 14 offensive rebounds. In my opinion we won this game because of the foul difference and the fact that Oldenburg missed some crucial shots in the final two minutes of the game. It obviously wasn’t easy to play this game with three very important players missing, but that is no excuse. Oldenburg played a good Euroleague season and I’m looking forward to seeing them in this competition again next year."

Players

SCEKIC, MARKO
EWE Baskets
"I think we played a very good game against Panathinaikos Athens and had a realistic chance to win. Also, as we were down by 13 points, we never gave up and gave Athens a big fight in our defense. We always thought we can win the game, but if you turn the ball over in the end it’s complicated to come back again."
BATISTE, MIKE
Panathinaikos
"It was a tough challenge for us to win against Oldenburg. They fought hard throughout the game and gave us some big problems. They played very good defense, which explains why we had so many turnovers. But in the end I have to say we can play much better than we did today. It’s not easy to play if players like Pekovic, Diamantidis and Spanoulis are missing, but we always want to win. We were 13 points ahead and still didn’t finish the game at that point. We are happy with this win and moving into the Top 16 of the Euroleague."
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