2007-08Regular SeasonRound 12
January 17, 2008 CET: 19:45
Local time: 20:45 OAKA

Panathinaikos, whose 102-78 blowout of Chorale Roanne

Panathinaikos moved a step closer to clinching first place in Group C by pasting Chorale Roanne 102-78 at the Athens Indoor Olympic Hall on Thursday night. Kostas Tsartsaris led the way with 19 points and Dimitrios Diamantidis had another solid all-around performance with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocked shots for the reigning champs. The Greens' fourth straight win improved their record to 11-1, leaving them one more victory or a Real Madrid loss from clinching first place in the group. Roanne dropped its fourth decision in a row to slip to 3-9 as their Top 16 hopes suffered a critical blow. Panathinaikos took care of business early, outscoring Roanne 29-15 in the opening quarter. The lead was only 15 at halftime, but the Greens soared to 75-51 at the end of the third quarter to seal the win early. It was a mild performance after Panathinaikos blasted Roanne 83-123 when they met earlier in the season. Nikos Hatzvirettas added a season-high 16 for the Greens, Demos Dikoudis scored 11 and Sarunas Jasikevicius 10. The Euroleague’s leading scorer, Marc Salyers, netted 27 for Roanne, Brion Rush added 15 and Ron Hale had 11 in defeat.

Panathinaikos got Tsartsaris involved early, and it paid off as the skilled forward contributed 6 points to a quick 9-2 lead. Soon, Salyers got himself into rhythm and scored back-to-back baskets to trim the difference to 14-8. However, Jasikevicius teamed up with Tsartsaris to embark on a three-point party, including a pair of triples for the Lithuanian, to open a near-decisive 27-8 gap thanks to a 13-0 run. The Greens had hit 5 of 5 three-point tries until then. Diamantidis was running the show, involving his teammates, while on the other end Roanne was struggling big time to find its way to the basket. Finally, Hale ended a three-minute dry spell -Panathinaikos having lost for a while its composure on defense- to help the guests pull within 27-15 after one quarter of play.

Adam Hess tried to ignite a comeback run with a two-handed dunk on the break, but Panathinaikos retorted with a 9-0 spurt and a 36-17 lead thanks to a triple by captain Fragiskos Alvertis and 4 points in the paint by Dikoudis. Roanne head coach Jean-Denys Choulet ordered a zone defense and, as his players picked up their defensive intensity, the hosts hit a wall offensively. Meanwhile, Rush picked up the scoring slack and knocked down jumpers inside and behind the arc to pull Roanne within 40-30. It wasn't long before the Panathinaikos bench players took over, however. Hatzivrettas scored a pair of free throws and an open triple, while Sani Becirovic followed with his first three-pointer of the night. As a result, the Greens headed to the locker room with a 52-37 lead on the board.

Entering the second half, Panathinaikos remained clearly in charge. Winston Kennedy finished a highlight reel fast-break and then Diamantidis nailed a triple to boost the margin to 59-41. Rush did not surrender though and stepped up with 5 points to trim the lead to 61-46, yet the hosts came up with another 9-0 run to put any hopes of a Roanne comeback out of reach. Hess loaded his three-point pistol, but still, at the end of the third quarter, the guests could not get closer than 75-51.

The momentum did not change in the final quarter of the game, as Panathinaikos dominated the battle of the benches behind Stratos Perperoglou and Hatzivrettas. Salyers and Rush - Roanne's focal points on offense throughout the game - kept the scoreboard rolling, however the Greens did not step off the gas until the waning minutes of the game. Therefore, in honour of its 100-year jubilee, Panathinaikos opted for closing the game with a three-digit score of 102-78, courtesy of a triple by Vassilis Spanoulis.

Thursday, January 17, 2008
Epameinondas Tsakalos Athens
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Referees: PILIPAUSKAS, KESTUTIS; VOJINOVIC, MILIJA; MARICIC,SASA
Attendance: 6000
By Quarter1234
Panathinaikos29232327
Chorale Roanne15221427
End of Quarter1234
Panathinaikos295275102
Chorale Roanne15375178
Panathinaikos
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 ALVERTIS, FRAGISKOS 5:51 3   1/2   1   1     1       1 3
5 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 13:28 5 2/5 0/1 1/1 1 2 3 2         1 1 6
6 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 21:09 9 3/3 1/2   1 5 6 2 1 3     2 1 13
7 BECIROVIC, SANI 18:36 8 0/2 2/2 2/2 1 2 3 3   1   1   2 12
9 ZIZIC, ANDRIJA 14:18   0/5   0/2 2 1 3 3   1   2 4 1 -7
10 HATZIVRETTAS, NIKOS 20:16 16 4/5 2/3 2/2   3 3 2   2 3   1 1 20
11 DIKOUDIS, DIMOS 20:12 11 5/6   1/1 1 2 3   1 3       2 13
12 TSARTSARIS, KOSTAS 20:41 19 7/8 1/3 2/2 1 2 3 3 1 1     1 2 23
13 DIAMANTIDIS, DIMITRIS 26:39 12   4/4     7 7 5 1 2 2   1 2 26
14 WINSTON, KENNEDY 16:31 9 3/4 1/2           1 1   1 3 1 4
16 TATAROUNIS, ARIS 3:47                         3   -3
19 JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS 18:32 10 2/5 2/3   1 4 5 1 2 3     2 1 10
Team                                
Totals 200:00 102 26/43 14/22 8/10 9 28 37 21 7 18 5 4 18 15 120
        60.5% 63.6% 80%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
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
Chorale Roanne
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 POUPET, PIERRIC 23:30 9 3/3 1/1     1 1 4 1 2       4 17
6 HALE, RONALD 32:33 11 4/7 1/4   2 2 4 3 3   2   3 1 15
8 WILSON, RAPHAEL 3:47     0/2     1 1 2 1           2
11 SOLIMAN, WILLIAMS 13:32 1 0/2   1/6 2   2     1 1   2 3 -3
21 BADIANE, PAPE 25:02 8 4/7   0/1 2   2 2         4 2 6
22 SALYERS, MARC 34:11 27 11/16 1/6 2/2 2 2 4   2 5 1   1 4 22
23 CAZALON, LAURENT 12:22 2 1/3 0/1   1 3 4     2   1 3   -3
34 HESS, ADAM 15:20 5 1/6 1/2     2 2   1     3     -1
45 PELLIN, MARC-ANTOINE 12:24     0/1     1 1 2   1       2 3
55 RUSH, BRION 27:19 15 3/4 3/9   1 3 4 4 3 2   1 2 2 16
Team                                
Totals 200:00 78 27/48 7/26 3/9 10 15 25 17 11 13 4 5 15 18 74
        56.3% 26.9% 33.3%
Head coach: CHOULET, JEAN-DENYS

Head Coaches

OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Panathinaikos
"I told my players that Roanne is a very good offensive team that scores a lot of points on the fast-break and from beyond the arc. This is exactly what they did tonight. They took advantage, scoring baskets, of almost any turnover we committed and in most cases they tried to knock down triples. That’s how they play most of the time regardless of whether they have the lead or not. Prior to this game, they were the team that had scored the most points in our Group. So, I asked my players to be concentrated on defense and they didn’t disappoint me, especially in the half-court. Other than few turnovers, I’m happy with everything else. It was one more important victory for us. Now, we know that we should win the next home game against Fener so as to finish atop our Group."
CHOULET, JEAN-DENYS
Chorale Roanne
"Tonight we played better than we did in our home game. However, once again we jumped out to a bad start and we let our opponents build an early 15-point lead and seal the game."

Players

BECIROVIC, SANI
Panathinaikos
"For sure they are not a bad team, but we were very effective early on in the game and we didn’t give them a chance to keep pace with us. Building an early lead is the most important thing in games like this one and that’s what we did. Now, we’ll try to win the remaining games and play even better. Both games will be a good test for us."
TSARTSARIS, KOSTAS
Panathinaikos
"Tonight we beat them easily, because we stayed focused and did not underestimate them. What is of importance is that we won the game, not that I performed well. Okay, my teammates fed me the ball and I made some open shots, but for me, what we should keep from tonight’s game is our good performance. We have to continue playing at this high level and be ready when the next and most crucial phase commences. It’s our intention to win the remaining games, so as to keep the momentum and satisfy our fans. It’s a matter of prestige actually."
SALYERS, MARC
Chorale Roanne
"Panathinaikos is a great team. They are so much better than us. We are a small team, just trying to gain experience. The verdict was kind of expected, you know? As far as my performance is concerned, I took too many shots and I missed too many of them. Yes, I scored 27 points against a very deep frontcourt, but I’ve got to do better than that. Overall I’m happy, but I would have liked to make few more shots."
HESS, ADAM
Chorale Roanne
"Panathinaikos shot the ball incredibly well tonight. You cannot afford to be down that much at the start against a team like that. They are not going to let you bounce back because they have 12 good players. I played terrible tonight and I got my shot rejected a couple of times. They are great defenders, but there’s no excuse. In the last two Euroleague games we’ll have to compete as well as we can. We don’t want to give up. We want to play as good as we can."
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