Brose Baskets beat Panathinaikos 79-76

Brose Baskets pulled off a shock in Group B of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague by defending its home court with a 79-76 victory over Panathinaikos. Predrag Suput led the way with 19 points while Julius Jenkins had 13 points and Casey Jacobsen chipped in 10 in improving Brose’s record to 2-3. Panathinaikos dropped to 3-2 despite 16 points from Dimitris Diamantidis and 13 from Kostas Kaimakoglou. Nick Calathes and Romain Sato both chipped in with 11 points.

Neither team could score in their first couple of possessions in the first two minutes until Brian Roberts’ layup after a steal to put Bamberg ahead 2-0. Diamantidis answered at the other end to make it 2-2. PJ Tucker was very aggressive in the early going and drove hard to the basket for a layup and Jacobsen’s triple from the left corner gave Brose a 7-2 advantage. Panathinaikos scored just two baskets in the first five minutes and Jacobsen’s layup had Bamberg ahead 9-4. But Calathes hit a driving layup and a three-pointer from the top of the circle to even the game at 9-9. Suput’s three-ball gave Brose the lead 14-11 but the guests found their rhythm and Diamantidis’s triple gave Panathinaikos its first lead 14-16 and Steven Smith nailed a long ball to make it 16-19, which was the score after 10 minutes.

Kaimakoglou nailed a triple from the top of the circle to start the second quarter for the defending champions. Tucker’s dunk got Bamberg started. But Kaimakoglou buried another long ball from the same spot for a seven-point lead – 18-25. Tibor Pleiss twice hit inside baskets to cut the deficit to five points but the gap was nine after a fine move by Kaimakoglou and a Sato basket. With his team trailing 22-31, Brose coach Chris Fleming called a timeout. The hosts responded with back-to-back three-pointers by Anton Gavel and Suput and Panathinaikos coach Zeljko Obradovic called a timeout with his team up just 28-31 halfway through the second quarter. After Panathinaikos scored two straight baskets, Suput answered with a jumper and three-ball to inch the host side within 33-35. Diamantidis answered right back with a triple of his own but Brose would pull it to within one point 37-38 on Pleiss’s inside basket. Calathes, however, scored another driving lay-up to put Panathinaikos ahead 37-40 at halftime.

Brose opened the scoring in the second half with an alley-oop dunk by Tucker. Gavel followed with a layup and Tucker nailed a jumper to push Bamberg ahead 43-40. Diamantidis finally got Panathinaikos on the scoring board 2:10 into the quarter on a lay-up. And a three-ball by David Logan gave Panathinaikos the lead back 43-45. Roberts and Jacobsen would both score to give Bamberg back the lead, but the guests re-claimed it on Aleks Maric’s three-point play. Julius Jenkins kept Bamberg close with two jumpers but Kaimakoglou nailed another long ball and Maric continued his strong third quarter with an inside layup for a 53-59 advantage and a Brose timeout. The hosts responded again with a Jacobsen three and then Brose stole the ball in the waning seconds and Suput hit a layup just before the buzzer and Bamberg led 60-59 after three periods.

Marcus Slaughter’s free throw started the scoring in the fourth period for the hosts, who got a layup by Suput and a Gavel triple to open a 66-59 cushion. Panathinaikos once again struggled to score at the start of a quarter with Diamantidis nailing a three 2:20 into the fourth to trim the margin to 66-62. Jenkins nailed a long ball to increase the lead back to seven at 71-64 but then missed a layup which would have given Bamberg a nine point advantage. Diamantidis would not let his team go down with a triple to narrow the deficit to 73-69 and then dished to a wide-open Sato in the left corner for a triple to make it 74-72. Suput pushed the lead to 76-72 with two free throws only to see Kaimakoglou tip in a miss to make it 76-74. After Jacobsen and Diamantidis swapped miss three-pointers, Roberts split two foul shots with 22 seconds to play and a 77-74 Brose lead. Calathes missed a three-pointer with 15 seconds left and Diamantidis was off-target with five seconds left. Ian Vougiokas got the offensive rebound and put it in to make it 77-76 with 1.5 seconds to play. Jenkins was fouled and made both free throws to seal the win.