Panathinaikos BC AKTOR defeated Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv 93–82 at Telekom Center Athens, in a game for Round 17 of the EuroLeague regular season. Top scorer for the Greens was Kendrick Nunn with 19 points.

The game was balanced in its opening minutes, with Panathinaikos BC AKTOR taking an early 5–2 lead and the visitors moving ahead 8–7 at the 3rd minute. The Greens responded with a 10–0 run to make it 17–8 at the 5th minute, extending the run to 13–0 for a 20–8 lead at the 7th minute. Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv answered with a 9–0 run of their own to cut the deficit to 20–17 at the 9th minute, before the end of the quarter found the score at 22–17.

At the 11th minute, the Greens pulled away to 29–21, while at the 14th minute the visitors closed in at 33–29. Panathinaikos BC AKTOR made it 39–32 at the 16th minute, however Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv managed to take the lead at 45–41 in the 19th minute and went into halftime ahead 46–45.

Panathinaikos BC AKTOR opened the second half with an 8–0 run for a 54–46 lead at the 22nd minute, but the visitors reacted and cut it to 54–53 at the 24th minute. At the 26th minute, Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv went up 57–54, yet once again the Greens found the answer and regained the lead 58–57 at the 28th minute. The end of the third quarter found our team ahead (65–62). In the fourth quarter, Panathinaikos BC AKTOR posted a 10–3 run to restore a double-digit advantage (75–65) and maintained that margin until the final buzzer, sealing the 93–82 win.

Quarters: 22–17, 45–46, 65–62, 93–82.

Panathinaikos BC AKTOR (Ataman): Shorts 6, Kalaitzakis 3 (1), Osman 17 (2), Sloukas 8 (1), Rogkavopoulos 2, Grant 9 (1), Nunn 19 (1), Toliopoulos, Faried 8, Hernangomez 7 (1), Mitoglou 3, Yurtseven 11.

Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv (Itoudis): Motley 3, Jones 10 (1), Blakeney 15 (1), Bryant 14 (1), Ennis 16 (4), Malcolm 14 (2), Odiase, Micic 4, Oturu 6, Madar, Ginat.

Ataman: “We won with great basketball”

The head coach of Panathinaikos BC AKTOR, Ergin Ataman, stated in the post-game Press Conference following the home game against Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv:

“At the beginning of the game, our plan was to be aggressive against Micic and Bryant, and we succeeded with Kalaitzakis and Grant. We played perfect defense, not allowing them to score through pick-and-rolls and penetrations. Itoudis understood that and moved Malcolm to the ‘4’, which forced us to adjust our rotation; our defense became softer and they found open shots. We also found open shots with our ‘4’, but in the first half we made just one out of eight open shots. We went to the locker room down by one.

In the second half, we used Nunn more. Our defense was good and aggressive, all players contributed, played team defense, Yurtseven was excellent, and everyone helped offensively. We earned this important win by playing great basketball.”

“Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul are a very good team; they won by a big margin against Armani in Milan. We won this game with good defense. This game gave me confidence to understand that, yes, we have great offensive players, but we need to change something defensively and analyze the home games where we were conceding many points in the first quarter. I decided to start with defensive players and it worked, it helped the team. Everyone contributed and felt it. I believe the fans love this kind of basketball; they give energy. I like this energy and I enjoyed it. I wanted to celebrate because we beat the top team in the EuroLeague playing great basketball.”

“Sloukas is a great player with experience. I know that whenever he is on the floor, we have an advantage. When he is on the court, the team has a statistical edge. Once again, he gave us not only scoring, but control of the game, with his mentality and champion character.”

Regarding the qualification of Panathinaikos women’s basketball team to the EuroCup Round of 16, the coach commented: “Congratulations to the women’s team for the great job they did to qualify. I think they achieved it after many years. We hope the football team will also find good results.”