2017-18Regular SeasonRound 11
December 07, 2017 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 ZALGIRIO ARENA

Pangos, Zalgiris halt Panathinaikos streak

Zalgiris Kaunas used a killer third quarter to deny visiting Panathinaikos Athens the biggest winning streak of the season with an 80-74 home victory on Thursday. Zalgiris raised its record to 6-5 to stop Panathinaikos at five victories in a row and drop the visitors to 7-4. Panathinaikos led by 10-22 early in the second quarter, after which Zalgiris outscored the guests 54-25 until the third quarter ended 64-47. Nikos Pappas hit 4 threes in the fourth quarter to get Panathinaikos within 72-67, but Zalgiris was better at the foul line all night and sealed the win there. Paulius Jankunas led the winners with 17 points while Aaron White had 9 of his 13 in a 33-14 third-quarter onslaught by Zalgiris. Kevin Pangos had a double-double with 12 points and a career-high 11 assists for Zalgiris, while Edgaras Ulanovas pulled 11 rebounds of his team's 37-24 advantage over Panathinaikos. Pappas had 16 points, Chris Singleton 15, K.C. Rivers 11 and Nick Calathes 10 for the visitors, whose 17 of 30 free throw shooting hurt throughout the game, especially as they missed 7 of 11 tries to start the second half.

James Gist, who made 2 steals and committed 2 fouls in the first 2 minutes, also hit a post-up bank shot to open the scoring. Matt Lojeski's put-back gave Panathinaikos a 0-4 lead before Pangos fired in the game's first triple. Singleton and White exchanged three-pointers next. Antanas Kavaliauskas tied on a layup and gave Zalgiris its first lead, 8-7, with a free throw. Panathinaikos responded with great D in a 0-10 run during which Calathes scored twice before Kenny Gabriel made a tip-in at 8-17. A five-minute Zalgiris scoring drought ended with an inside basket by Brandon Davies but Singleton beat the first-quarter buzzer with a smooth triple for a 10-20 Panathinaikos lead. Lukas Lekavicius, in his first game against his old team, opened the second quarter with a jumper, but a second-chance triple by Arturas Milaknis got a rise out of the home crowd. Dee Bost's free throws and a jumper by Jankunas got Zalgiris within 17-22. Scoring stalled for both teams until Rivers beat the shot clock with a triple and Ulanovas put back a missed free throw at 21-25. Calathes reappeared with a floater that Pangos answered from deep. Zach Auguste and Davies traded three-point plays before a tipped-in free throw by Ulanovas ended the first half with Zalgiris having closed within 31-33.

Zalgiris started the second half with a bang as Axel Toupane reversed a fastbreak layup and Pangos lobbed to White for a go-ahead alley-oop dunk at 35-33. Calathes and Kavaliauskas traded baskets before Lojeski's transition triple put Panathinaikos back in front, 37-39. White blasted another dunk, tipped in his own miss and then stepped out for a triple to make it 44-40 for Zalgiris. Jankunas added 4 free throws and Pangos a layup to extend the Zalgiris run to 10-0 and the lead to 50-40. Singleton got 2 free throws for Panathinaikos that Ulanovas answered with another tip-in. When Jankunas and Ulanovas scored inside, it was a 15-point difference, 57-42. Rivers revived Panathinaikos from the arc at 59-47. Pangos exited a timeout with a three-pointer and Kavaliauskas put back his miss as the Zalgirio Arena reveled in a 64-47 lead after 30 minutes. Pappas hit an open three and a closely guarded one to suddenly lower the difference to 11 as the fourth quarter started. Jankunas responded with a jumper, but Pappas was not to be denied, and his next shot from downtown made it 66-56. Jankunas against steadied the hosts with a jumper and steal for a layup at 70-56. But Pappas measured off his fourth triple, then Rivers banked in a jumper and drilled from deep to suddenly make it 70-64. Vasilije Micic settled the home team's nerves from the lane, but Singleton rattled in another triple for a five-point difference, 72-67, with 4 minutes left. Jankunas again hit a jumper and White downed free throws, Gist finally scored inside at 76-70, but missed his team's 10th free throw of the game. Singleton made 3 of his next 4, between which Pangos fed Davies for a layup, leaving a 78-72 score with 1:44 to play. Free throws remained a theme as Micic made his with 36 seconds left and Gist missed 2, which sealed the win for Zalgiris.

Kevin Pangos - Zalgiris Kaunas - EB17
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Euroleague.net
Referees: RADOVIC, SRETEN; PATERNICO, CARMELO; ROMANO, DAVID
Attendance: 12501
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas10213316
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens20131427
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas10316480
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens20334774
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 DAVIES, BRANDON 14:47 9 3/4   3/5 1   1   1 1     4 4 7
1 BOST, DEE 6:56 2     2/2   1 1 1           1 5
3 PANGOS, KEVIN 28:08 12 1/8 3/4 1/1 2 3 5 11 2 4   2 2 3 17
6 TOUPANE, AXEL 15:51 3 1/4   1/2 1   1   2 1     4 1 -2
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 20:10 17 6/9   5/6 2 2 4 1 1 2   1 5 5 16
20 MASIULIS, GYTIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 18:18 3   1/3     1 1     2     3 1 -2
22 MICIC, VASILIJE 19:21 4 1/3   2/2   3 3 3 1 1     4 2 6
30 WHITE, AARON 25:16 13 4/7 1/1 2/2 2 3 5 2   1     3 1 14
44 KAVALIAUSKAS, ANTANAS 16:03 9 4/6   1/2 2 2 4   1 1 1   2 2 11
66 VALINSKAS, PAULIUS 6:12   0/2 0/1   1   1 1         2   -3
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 28:58 8 4/5 0/1   5 6 11 3   2 1   1 1 19
Team             1 1     2         -1
Totals 200:00 80 24/48 5/10 17/22 16 22 38 22 8 17 2 3 30 21 87
        50% 50% 77.3%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
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 33:12 15 0/1 3/4 6/8         1 5 1   4 7 11
3 RIVERS, KC 28:41 11 1/3 3/7     2 2 2 3     1     11
11 PAPPAS, NIKOS 20:03 16 0/3 4/7 4/4       1 1 1   1 3 6 13
12 DENMON, MARCUS 5:55   0/1                     1   -2
14 GIST, JAMES 17:56 4 2/4 0/2 0/3         2 2     4 2 -5
15 VOUGIOUKAS, IAN 10:26 2 0/1   2/2   1 1   1 1 1     2 5
19 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 15:33 2 1/2 0/1   1 1 2 5 1 2     1 2 7
22 GABRIEL, KENNY 13:33 2 1/2 0/3 0/2 3 3 6           2 3 3
23 AUGUSTE, ZACH 4:47 3 1/2   1/1 1 1 2 1   1 1   2 1 4
24 LOJESKI, MATT 14:01 7 2/3 1/3   2 2 4     1       1 8
33 CALATHES, NICK 24:30 10 4/4 0/4 2/6 2 4 6 4 1 2     3 4 12
43 ANTETOKOUNMPO, THANASIS 11:23 2 0/1   2/4 1   1 2 1       1 2 4
Team           8 1 9               9
Totals 200:00 74 12/27 11/31 17/30 18 15 33 15 11 15 3 2 21 30 80
        44.4% 35.5% 56.7%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas

"Of course, I'm very happy to beat the team that was playing probably the best basketball in the EuroLeague in the last two months. We did it with great fight, and hopefully it's one more experience for our players to hopefully believe in the system and hopefully to believe in what we do here."

"I think physicality was the main thing. We started playing so soft, missing layups, turnovers. Maybe their 3-2 zone blew us off a little our rhythm. Then we adjusted some and were better. But we saw a Zalgiris that was ready to fight, and for me this is the most important. You can lose that way; it's no problem. Whatever happened in the past, last year or two weeks ago, it don't doesn't matter. Every game is a new story. I don't believe in statistics before or things like this. Every game you've got to come and be ready."

PASCUAL, XAVI
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens
"Congratulation to Zalgiris for this win. It was a game that we had control of for the first 13-14 minutes. After that we couldn't find a way to score. I think it was very important at the end of the second quarter, with Vougioukas playing in the low post, he couldn't score with one important contact, and after that in the fastbreak Zalgiris scored and again when we lost a defensive rebound. This 4-0 swing was very important. In the third quarter, we didn't play defense at all. Zalgiris played much, much better than us. This is why they took this important advantage. And in the last quarter, we fought, we had some possibilities to come back to the game, but in the end it was impossible for us."

Players

PANGOS, KEVIN
Zalgiris Kaunas
"I thought we were just scrappy, especially in the second half. We got rebounds, we got stops, and then finished some of the shots we weren't making first half. It wasn't pretty but we got it done. I just tried to be aggressive. They were switching defenses a bunch, making it tough, so I tried to just do whatever I could for the team to win."
GABRIEL, KENNY
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens
"We cannot be angry, we have to get the positive elements and prepare for the next game. In the third period, we had no energy. What we have to do is not to be angry, but see what we did wrong and look to the game against Aris. "