2017-18Regular SeasonRound 30
April 05, 2018 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 MEDIOLANUM FORUM

Panathinaikos survives at OT buzzer in Milan

Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens kept its hopes alive for gaining home-court advantage in the upcoming playoffs with a nerve-wracking 95-96 road win on the buzzer in overtime on Thursday against heart-broken AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan. Mike James sent a one-hand pass toward the rim that James Gist never touched but somehow the ball dropped in, giving the Greens a serendipitous win in a game they trailed in early and often. Panathinaikos raised its record to 19-11. To gain home-court advantage, the Greens now need Olympiacos Piraeus (19-10) or Real Madrid (18-11) to lose on Friday, but if both win, the Greens will end up fifth. Milan finished its season 10-20 despite leading for most of the game, at one point by as much as 17 points. Milan nonetheless needed 3 free throws by Dairis Bertans to force overtime, where it seemed set to win again until the last, fateful play. James, Nick Calathes and James Gist paced Panathinaikos with 18 points each, all coming up big late, as did Marcus Denmon with 12 points and Chris Singleton with 10. Milan got a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds from Arturas Gudaitis. Mindaugas Kuzminskas followed with 16 points, Andrew Goudelock with 13 and Davide Pascolo with 11.

Amath M'Baye buried a pair of triples while Calathes and Kuzminskas exchanged layups twice as Milan went up 10-4. Kaleb Tarczewski kept it going with a tip-in and Kuzminskas detonated a drop-step dunk, while Singleton and James joined the Panathinaikos scoring column. Goudelock drained a three that James answered with a teardrop. Thanasis Antetokounmpo fed Gist for a fastbreak dunk and Curtis Jerrells got his first points for Milan. After a timeout, a triple by Kuzminskas made it a double-digit lead, 22-12. Goudelock upped it with free throws that Nikos Pappas bettered with a three-point play to which Gist added a triple to make it 24-18. Free throws by Kuzminskas left a 27-18 score after 10 minutes and Pascolo's reverse restored Milan's double-digit advantage right after the break. Gist's put-back dunk and a triple by Singleton seemed to settle Panathinaikos at 29-23. But in a series of nifty plays, Pascolo fed a behind-the-back pass to Andrea Cinciarini, who led Kuzminskas for a dunk before lobbing long to Pascolo and suddenly it was 37-23. Kenny Gabriel hit a triple out of a timeout for the visitors, but Gudaitis responded with a pair of three-point plays, Goudelock added a runner and Tarczewski a layup to make it 47-30. Gist's free throws and a triple from Denmon cut the difference to 51-37, but Singleton's three-point play was offset by free throws from Awudu Abass for a 55-42 halftime score.

Baskets by Jerrells and Pappas around a triple by Antetokounmpo punctuated a series of free throws that let Panathinaikos get within 60-49 after the break. Antetokounmpo cut it further with a tough basket for a three-point play. M'Baye's baseline jumper fell before Jerrells stroked a sweet three to beat the shot clock at 67-52. Free throws from Kuzminskas let Milan match the biggest lead yet, 69-52, before Calathes drilled a corner triple and Gist downed a jump hook. James came back with free throws and a running layup to close the third quarter with Panathinaikos back within single digits, 69-61. Calathes, Adreian Payne and Singleton strung together baskets to lower the difference to 71-67. Gudaitis downed a put-back before Calathes drilled another triple at 73-70, making it a 4-18 run for Panathinaikos. Pascolo hit free throws for Milan then Gudiatis dunked a miss at 77-70. Free throws by James were answered by a runner from Pascolo. James scored inside then assisted Denmon for a big triple to make it 79-77. After a series of free throws, Calathes made a huge offensive rebound and dribbled around to hit a one-hander at 82-81. Gudaitis kept rebounding and got another pair of free throws, keeping Milan up 84-81 entering the final minute. Gist dunked on the baseline with 40 seconds left, and then after a Milan turnover, James skated through the lane for a go-ahead runner with 14.6 seconds left, 84-85. Goudelock missed a runner that let Denmon drop 2 more free throws before Singleton fouled Bertans on a three-pointer, letting him make 3 of 3 from the line to send the game to overtime tied 87-87.

Payne ended 2 scoreless minutes in overtime with strong move to the basket but Gudaitis came back with a dunk and free throws for Milan. James raced coast to coast to tie it, 91-91, before Goudelock drained a long two-pointer going into the last minute of overtime. Calathes found Gist for a strong basket that he turned into a three-point play and a 93-94 Panathinaikos lead with 26.5 seconds left, but Goudelock went the other way and nailed a sweet jumper that fell with 7.4 seconds left. Panathinaikos inbounded to James whose lob near the rim never made it to Gist but whether touched or not by a Milan player, found its way into the basket for the victory.

Mike James - Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens - EB17
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Euroleague.net
Referees: HIERREZUELO, DANIEL; MAJKIC, MARIO ; DIFALLAH, MEHDI
Attendance: 6626
By Quarter1234Extra 1
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan272814188
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens182419269
End of Quarter1234Extra 1
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan2755698795
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens1842618796
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 GOUDELOCK, ANDREW 33:58 13 3/7 1/6 4/4   5 5 2 1 3     3 4 10
7 PASCOLO, DAVIDE 22:12 11 4/5   3/4 1 1 2 1 2       1 3 16
15 TARCZEWSKI, KALEB 21:24 8 2/3   4/4 1 8 9     1     4 3 14
19 KUZMINSKAS, MINDAUGAS 23:15 16 4/5 1/2 5/5 2 1 3 4   2       2 21
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA 25:02 6 2/3 0/1 2/2 1   1 5 1 3     1 3 10
22 CUSIN, MARCO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 ABASS, AWUDU 1:41 2     2/3                 1 1 1
24 M'BAYE, AMATH 22:36 9 1/2 2/3 1/2 1 3 4 2 1 3     3 1 8
25 THEODORE, JORDAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45 BERTANS, DAIRIS 21:24 5 0/1 0/4 5/5   2 2         1 3 3 1
55 JERRELLS, CURTIS 29:55 7 2/5 1/4     2 2 3   5     3 1 -1
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 23:33 18 5/8   8/8 6 4 10   2 1     4 7 29
Team             1 1     1          
Totals 225:00 95 23/39 5/20 34/37 12 27 39 17 7 19 0 1 23 28 109
        59% 25% 91.9%
Head coach: PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
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 Superfoods Athens
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 SINGLETON, CHRIS 34:18 10 3/6 1/2 1/1 2 3 5   2 2 1   5 2 9
5 JAMES, MIKE 30:13 18 7/14 0/2 4/5   4 4 4 1 1     3 3 16
6 PAYNE, ADREIAN 13:51 4 2/3 0/2   3   3     1     2 1 2
11 PAPPAS, NIKOS 12:29 7 2/2 0/2 3/3   2 2 1   1     2 3 8
12 DENMON, MARCUS 18:05 12   2/3 6/6 2 2 4           1 4 18
14 GIST, JAMES 31:50 18 6/10 1/5 3/4 4 1 5 1   1     4 4 14
15 VOUGIOUKAS, IAN 3:53   0/1               1     2   -4
19 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 5:53               1   1     1 1  
22 GABRIEL, KENNY 5:39 3   1/2                       2
24 LOJESKI, MATT 17:38   0/1 0/2     1 1     1     1   -4
33 CALATHES, NICK 36:34 18 4/7 3/6 1/2 1 2 3 6 4 3     3 3 21
43 ANTETOKOUNMPO, THANASIS 14:37 6 1/1 1/2 1/1       1 1       4 2 5
Team           2 2 4               4
Totals 225:00 96 25/45 9/28 19/22 14 17 31 14 8 12 1 0 28 23 91
        55.6% 32.1% 86.4%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
"I think that my players tonight played a great game. We need to consider that physically we are in a difficult moment. We are again without Jordan Theodore, a point guard who is important for us. He is recovering, he was on the bench, but doesn't have the rhythm for this kind of game. And we were without Micov, who for us is very, very important. So changing everything for tonight, starting the game with a different lineup that we had never tried, everyone played as we practiced the last days. We played an excellent game. At the end, it was normal to see Pana come back, but in the crucial moments when we needed to stop them to maintain the gap and win the game before the overtime, we missed three layups. This EuroLeague is like that. We lost some possessions, but at the end all of my small players were tired and they all lost some. In two or three situations we missed the opportunity to feed Gudaitis inside against small players, but sometimes you arrive at the end with players tired and they miss these things. One more time it's a loss for us...but I have to say that my players today played excellent and we have seen how they work to be better and better."
PASCUAL, XAVI
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens
"It was very clear that our picture in the second half was completely different. We played better defense, we started from defense and after that we played better on offense. I think it's unacceptable what happened in the first 20 minutes. We didn't play defense at all, and we have to learn from this win for the playoffs."

Players

DENMON, MARCUS
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens
"Milan was strong at the start of the game. We did not have so much energy. In the second half we improved, we had the energy and we played better on defense. We were united as a team. Each team in the Euroleague is competitive. We wanted to keep our momentum before the playoffs. That's my job: when I get the chance, I have to be ready. I will always be. In every training session and every opportunity I get, I will give everything I can. We do not know who will be our opponent in the playoffs. We will have to work and be prepared for anyone who finds us.”
CALATHES, NICK
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens
"It was a great game, obviously for the fans. Milan has been playing very good basketball as a team and it's difficult to win here. For us it's a big win for the top of the standings and just to get momentum going into the knockout games."