2016-17Regular SeasonRound 1
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens 84
Zalgiris Kaunas 76
October 14, 2016 CET: 20:15
Local time: 21:15 OLYMPIC SPORTS CENTER ATHENS
Nikos Pappas - Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens - EB16

Pappas, Panathinaikos hold off Zalgiris to win opener

Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens topped visiting Zalgiris Kaunas 84-76 on Friday at Olympic Sports Center Athens in both team’s Turkish Airlines EuroLeague opener. Nikos Pappas led the way with 19 points and Chris Singleton added 13 points and 7 rebounds for the winners. The visitors held a slim margin going into the last 10 minutes, however Pappas hit a pair of three-pointers during a 10-3 run that put Panathinaikos in front for good. Pappas’s steal and a Calathes triple with 2:17 left opened up a 77-68 lead, the biggest of the night, and helped the Greens avoid drama in the final moments. Calathes finished with 13 points and Ioannis Bourousis had 11 points and 6 rebounds for the victors. Brock Motum scored a career-high 19 points for Zalgiris. Paulius Jankunas added 13 points and 8 rebounds, Lukas Lekavicius netted 12 and Arturas Milaknis 11 in defeat.

Pappas and Bourousis helped the hosts go up 20-15 at the end of first quarter, and Bourousis extended the margin to 7 points at the start of the second. But a three-point play by Motum and a triple by Arturas Milaknis ignited a 0-12 Zalgiris run, which put the visitors in front 22-27 midway through the second. However, Panathinaikos quickly regained the lead with a pair of triples each from Antonis Fotsis and James Feldeine, including Feldeine’s shot that beat the halftime buzzer and gave Panathinaikos a 37-30 halftime advantage. Led by Lukas Lekavicius, the visitors opened the second half with a 2-11 run and took a 39-41 lead. Zalgiris held its slim led and entered the final quarter up 51-52, but the hosts assumed control again with back-to-back threes from Pappas, before a put-back from Singleton opened a 69-62 cushion with just over five minutes to go. Zalgiris refused to go away; Milaknis hit a triple to cut the deficit to 2, but Pappas’s steal and a fastbreak dunk followed by a Calathes triple gave the hosts breathing room. Motum got Zalgiris within 78-74 entering the final minute, but the visitors could not get closer than that.

Friday, October 14, 2016
Euroleague.net
Referees: HIERREZUELO, DANIEL; SAHIN, TOLGA; BALAK, AMIT
Attendance: 8722
By Quarter1234
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens20171433
Zalgiris Kaunas15152224
End of Quarter1234
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens20375184
Zalgiris Kaunas15305276
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 25:18 13 2/4 2/6 3/6 5 2 7 3 2 1 1   4 3 15
2 NICHOLS, DEMETRIS 23:40 2 1/2 0/2   1 2 3       2   1 2 5
3 RIVERS, KC 17:22 2 1/1 0/3 0/1   2 2 1   1     4 1 -3
7 BOCHORIDIS, ELEFTHERIOS 2:53                           1 1
8 CALATHES, PAT DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 FOTSIS, ANTONIS 7:37 6   2/3   1 1 2           1   6
11 PAPPAS, NIKOS 22:23 19 2/3 3/4 6/6   2 2 3 1 2     2 4 23
12 FELDEINE, JAMES 23:30 8   2/4 2/2 1 1 2 1   1     1 2 9
14 GIST, JAMES 21:03 8 3/3 0/1 2/3   4 4 1 1 2     4 3 9
15 CHARALAMPOPOULOS, VASILIS 7:31 2 1/1     1   1               3
29 BOUROUSIS, IOANNIS 17:27 11 4/9 0/2 3/4 2 4 6     1 1     4 13
33 CALATHES, NICK 31:16 13 3/7 1/5 4/8   2 2 4 1 1     3 6 10
Team           1 1 2     1         1
Totals 200:00 84 17/30 10/30 20/30 12 21 33 13 5 10 4 0 20 26 92
        56.7% 33.3% 66.7%
Head coach: PEDOULAKIS, ARGYRIS
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
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 PANGOS, KEVIN 18:49 3 0/2 1/5     3 3 3 1 3     2 1  
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 20:26 12 3/7 2/6     2 2   2 3   1 5 1  
9 WESTERMANN, LEO 20:33 4 1/4 0/3 2/2 1 2 3 3   1     3 2 2
10 SEIBUTIS, RENALDAS 5:55   0/1               1     1   -3
12 MOTUM, BROCK 21:54 19 6/10 1/1 4/4 4 1 5         2 2 3 19
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 25:26 13 3/5 0/1 7/8 3 5 8   1 2   1 1 9 23
15 JAVTOKAS, ROBERTAS 12:24 4 2/3     3 2 5     1     3   4
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 20:08 11 2/2 2/5 1/2                 1 2 8
23 LIMA, AUGUSTO 8:51 2 1/1     1 1 2           1   3
44 KAVALIAUSKAS, ANTANAS 10:55 6 3/4     1 4 5     3     4   3
55 HARTENSTEIN, ISAIAH DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 34:39 2 1/5 0/2   3 4 7 3 1       3 2 6
Team           2 2 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 76 22/44 6/23 14/16 18 26 44 9 5 15 0 4 26 20 68
        50% 26.1% 87.5%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS

Head Coaches

PEDOULAKIS, ARGYRIS
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens
“We were nervous with this being our first game. The key was that in the last 10 minutes, when we changed up the game, team slowly woke up and we started playing well. As you know, we are a brand new team this season, and we are missing our main player Mike James. I felt like with Nikos Pappas playing, he woke up the team a little bit. Generally, we had a lot of opportunities, we missed some, we won some, but overall we did well.”
JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"I consider this game a game of lost opportunity. We had a pretty clear game plan coming in, and some things we risked we wanted to risk, and some things we never wanted to risk, we risked and got punished for it. A lot of mental mistakes on our part helped them escape a little bit. Crucial was the basket-and-one from Gist, and immediately an offensive rebound from the foul shot. We managed to come back from that, but two triples from Pappas were also very important. Offensive rebounds are always a consequence how much you drive the ball, because their bigs have to come over and help, which opens room to grab an offensive rebound. We missed a lot of shots. Too many open shots to win in OAKA. Guys were fighting, I am not worried about the effort and work players put in, but we have to play a little smarter and make shots in gyms like OAKA."

Players

PAPPAS, NIKOS
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens
“Every first game is a special game. Most important for us is that we won which is good for our confidence. I think we did not start the game in a right way, we made some bad choices. But we kept playing like we practice, and that is why we won.”
JANKUNAS, PAULIUS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"It was a tough game. They are very physical and it was tough for us to play offense. Of course, we did not follow our game plan 100 percent, and when we made mistakes we got punished by a three-pointer. We need to learn from this game, and learn to follow the plan. Not to make mistakes, especially tactical mistakes."