2007-08Regular SeasonRound 6
November 29, 2007 CET: 19:15
Local time: 20:15 ABDI IPEKCI ARENA

Panathinaikos to a sixth consecutive victory as it derailed host Fenerbahce Ulker 64-83

One near-perfect quarter propelled defending Euroleague champions Panathinaikos to a sixth consecutive Group C victory as it derailed host Fenerbahce Ulker 64-83 in Istanbul, Turkey on Thursday. Panathinaikos is the only remaining undefeated team in the Euroleague at 6-0, and therefore owns first place in Group C. Fenerbahce, meanwhile, saw its three-game winning streak snapped and its record fall to 3-3. The third quarter was game-breaker as the Panathinaikos defense stopped Fenerbahce cold, almost before the hosts could shoot. What had been a 39-43 game at halftime changed irrevocably as the Greens converted steal after steal and rebound after rebound into a 22-5 score over 10 minutes then rode out the final quarter to victory. Sarunas Jasikevicius paced the winners with 19 points in 18 minutes, while Mike Batiste added 16 and 7 rebounds. Andrija Zizic picked up 14 more points and Winston Kennedy 13 for the Greens, who were missing all-Euroleague guard Dimitrios Diamantidis due to sickness. For Fenerbahce, Semih Erden picked up 15 points in the pain, while James White added 14 and Willie Solomon 11. Mirsad Turkcan collected 9 rebounds, moving him closer to becoming the first player of the decade with 1,000. He now has 978.

Becirovic scored in penetration right at the start of the game while Winston soon gave Panathinaikos a 2-4 lead. Fenerbahce ran its offense through its big men early in the game, as Gasper Vidmar scored inside, but back-to-back baskets by Batiste kept the reigning Euroleague champion ahead, 6-9. Solomon stepped up with his first points while Omer Onan fed White for an easy basket, good for a 10-9 Fenerbahce edge. Winston and an unstoppable Batiste kept pacing Panathinaikos but Solomon, free throws by White and a fast break layup by Onan allowed the hosts to get a 16-13 lead after 7 minutes. The Greens struggled to find good shots now, while a put-back layup by Vidmar boosted Fenerbahce's lead to 18-14. Winston stepped up with free throws and even when Erden scored in the other end, Jasikevicius was fouled while taking a three-point shot and did not miss from the line to get Panathinaikos within 20-19 at the end of the first quarter.

Jasikevicius gave a no-look assist to Andrija Zizic right at the start of the second quarter, but Fenerbahce stayed aggressive, finding good options in offense. Erden hit 3-for-4 free throws while Ibrahim Kutluay sank a seven-meter three-pointer from the top of the key, good for a 26-21 Fenerbahce lead early in the second quarter. Zizic stepped up with a power layup, igniting a 0-6 run in which Jasikevicius followed a running jumper with a fast break layup that put Panathinaikos back ahead, 26-27. Erden followed an uncontested dunk with another basket while free throws by Solomonm gave Fenerbahce its biggest lead that far, 32-27. Nikos Hatzivrettas and an outstanding Jasikevicius tried to change things for the Greens, but Rasim Basak collected two steals that allowed Emir Preldzic to keep Fener ahead, 36-31. It didn't last long, however, as Winston scored off a steal, igniting a 0-10 Panathinaikos run in which Zizic had 6 points to put the Greens back ahead, 36-41. Damir Kaan hit one from downtown but a final basket by Jasikevicius gave the Greens a 39-43 edge at halftime

Panathinaikos put the finishing touches on its turnaround and the game itself soon after halftime. The Green's defense blocked Fenerbahce's every move, while Spanoulis, Batiste and Zizic started the half with 6 unanswered points to make it 39-49, the first double-digit lead of the game. Winston added a dunk in transition and Batiste completed the 0-10 start to the third quarter at 39-53. Fenerbahce stopped turning the ball over long enough for White to score on of his team's two baskets for the entire quarter. Zizic and Batiste kept on dominating the game inside as the margin grew bigger minute by minute. Batiste's layup in the quarter's last minute meant a 24-point for the Greens before Gasper Vidmar's layup-plus-free throw for Fenerbahce left a 44-65 scoreboard after 30 minutes.

Fenerbahce shook itself awake a little bit after the shocking third period and made a 6-0 start to the last quarter by looking to Erden inside. It didn't take long for Panathinaikos to refresh its memory of the thunderous third quarter, however. This time, an 0-8 run consisting of Dejan Tomasevic's layup and 2 three-points blasts by Jasikevicius extended the lead to 24 points once again, 53-77, with 5 minutes to go. Jasikevicius made sure that Panathinaikos controlled the remaining minutes and cruised to the finish of its sixth victory without a loss this season.

Thursday, November 29, 2007
Gokhan Ture, Istanbul
No results found.
Referees: ARTEAGA, JUAN CARLOS; BITTON, MOSHE; DOZAI, SRDAN
Attendance: 4500
By Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Ulker2019520
Panathinaikos19242218
End of Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Ulker20394464
Panathinaikos19436583
Fenerbahce Ulker
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 WHITE, JAMES 35:01 14 6/7 0/1 2/2 1 2 3 3 2 2 1 1 2 4 20
5 SOLOMON, WILLIE 18:25 11 3/4 1/5 2/2       1   1     4 2 4
6 TURKCAN, MIRSAD 16:53   0/4 0/1   4 5 9 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 3
7 ONAN, OMER 16:35 2 1/2 0/2 0/2 1   1 1 1 1     2 2 -1
8 BASAK, RASIM 5:21 2 1/1       1 1 1 2         1 7
9 ERDEN, SEMIH 23:45 15 6/9   3/4 1 4 5 1 1 2 1   3 2 16
10 KUTLUAY, IBRAHIM 19:52 6 0/1 2/5     2 2   1 1     3 1 2
12 MRSIC, DAMIR 21:35 3   1/5   1   1 1 1 2     2   -2
14 VIDMAR, GASPER 21:29 9 4/9   1/3 3 3 6 1 2 4 2   3 4 10
15 DEMIREL, HAKAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 SAVAS, OGUZ 12:32   0/3 0/1     4 4 1         1    
55 PRELDZIC, EMIR 8:32 2 1/1 0/3             1     2   -4
Team                                
Totals 200:00 64 22/41 4/23 8/13 11 21 32 11 11 15 5 2 25 17 55
        53.7% 17.4% 61.5%
Head coach: TANJEVIC, BOGDAN
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
4 ALVERTIS, FRAGISKOS 3:43           1 1           1    
5 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 7:40 2 1/2       2 2   1 1         3
6 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 27:46 9 3/7 0/1 3/4   2 2 2 1 1   1 1 4 9
7 BECIROVIC, SANI 22:15 2 1/1 0/2 0/1 1 2 3 2 2       2 3 7
8 BATISTE, MIKE 22:03 16 8/11 0/1   1 6 7 2 2 1 1   3 1 21
9 ZIZIC, ANDRIJA 21:43 14 6/9 0/1 2/5   4 4   1 1   1 1 6 15
10 HATZIVRETTAS, NIKOS 17:28 4 1/1   2/2   1 1 2 1 2     3 1 4
11 DIKOUDIS, DIMOS 8:46                   1     3   -4
12 TSARTSARIS, KOSTAS 14:20 2 0/1 0/1 2/2 2 1 3   1 1 1   1 2 5
14 WINSTON, KENNEDY 28:09 13 5/7 0/2 3/4 1 3 4 2 1 2   1   3 15
15 TOMASEVIC, DEJAN 8:03 2 1/3           2 1     1 1   1
19 JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS 18:04 19 5/7 2/2 3/5   2 2 3 1 3   1 1 5 21
Team                                
Totals 200:00 83 31/49 2/10 15/23 5 24 29 15 12 13 2 5 17 25 97
        63.3% 20% 65.2%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO

Head Coaches

TANJEVIC, BOGDAN
Fenerbahce Ulker
"The quality of our opponent in this game is not a surprise for me. I'm just surprised at the third quarter because of our game ended. We fell down like a team playing its first game in a summer tournament. This third quarter was a killer for us. At the same time, they showed why are they the champion of this tournament. With great discipline of the game, with great effort to put up resistance for all 40 minutes, not only 30 minutes. I think we played 30 minutes good enough to make a little challenge against a great team like Panathinaikos. But the 10 minutes of the third quarter was too much for us. We feel the absence of Willie Solomon in the third quarter because of his fourth foul and we had to keep him on the bench. But this is only one of the reasons of the disasterous third period."
OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Panathinaikos
"Fenerbahce Ulker is a good team with a combination of good players. For that reason, we came here a little bit wary of our opponent. And the 19 points difference at the end of the game was not the real differance of power between the two teams. We made a very bad start to the game and gave too many chances for offensive rebounds and made lots of turnovers just in the first quarter. But we started showing our real face in the second period. We balanced the game, set our offense and started to take the rebounds under our control. And when we start to get rebounds, we turned those into fastbreaks as much as we could to change the destiny of the game. And finally in the third period, we found the rythm that we were targeting before the match. We played as fast as we can and it worked well as we had a big margin. As I told you at the beginning, Fenerbahce is a good team with good concepts, perfect communication. I believe that they will be in top five in our group at the end of the first phase."

Players

KUTLUAY, IBRAHIM
Fenerbahce Ulker
"To play with Panathinaikos head to head in a game, you have to defend very well and to play mostly inside to score on offense. This is what we couldn't do in the third quarter. We gave them easy chances for wide open shots, many fastbreaks because of our mistakes on offesce, wrong and failed attempts and turnovers. And this is Panathinaikos, not any other team: they used this advantage very well. They have the best roster, packed with superstars and they really played excellent, especially in the third quarter. And it's almost impossible to comeback from 20 points against a team like PAO. They are a well disciplined team. Anyway, it doesn't mean a lot that we lose this game because we still have our chances for the Top 16, better than many teams."
JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Panathinaikos
"We made many mistakes just in the first quarter. We turned the ball over and weren't able to found our rythm. We also lost the control inside the paint to take the rebounds. But we levelled the game in the second quarter and took the control in our hands. We tried to play as quick as we can in the third period, when we took the game away. It was quite good when we were taking the rebounds because it helped us a lot to play our fastbreak game. We are happy to keep on winning."
No results found.