Sloukas and Panathinaikos beat Fenerbahce in Istanbul

Kostas Sloukas and the defending champions made the big shots down the stretch and got a big road win.

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

Kostas Sloukas celebrated his 392nd EuroLeague game with a big win in his former home.

The captain of the defending champions scored 13 points, including the biggest three of the game, and led Panathinaikos the 81-76 road win over Fenerbahce.

Kendrick Nunn and Mathias Lessort added 14 points each, while Lorenzo Brown and Omer Yurtseven had 12 points each. “We learned a lot from this game, I think we will carry it. It was a team effort”, the former Utah Jazz center commented in the game’s aftermath.

Tarik Biberovic with 16 points, Wade Baldwin with 14, and Bonzi Colson with 11 were the top scorers of Fenerbahce. Panathinaikos was missing Dinos Mitoglou, Ioannis Papapetrou, and Marius Grigonis but still managed to prevail. The two teams are tied at 3-2 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.

Ergin Ataman commented on his team’s win. “For three quarters, we played the perfect game: on the road, we moved the ball well, and we had an excellent defense. But in the last quarter, we started panicking on offense and they changed the game”, he said.

“But in the last five minutes, on that period of the game, the team and especially [Kostas] Sloukas pulled great character”, he commented, while Sarunas Jasikevicius expressed frustration. “It’s not enough playing one and a half quarters against the EuroLeague champions. We didn’t compete in the first half, then we came back showing character and finding a little bit of basketball”, he followed.

A thriller in the end

Panathinaikos got the early lead with a six-point advantage at the end of the first period (21-15), which was extended to 10 points after a layup by Lorenzo Brown (25-15) early in the second.

Fenerbahce reacted with three free throws by Biberovic and a three by Melli to make it a four-point game (25-21) but Panathinaikos kept things in check and got the lead back 10 (34-24) and then to 12 points (42-30) after a three by Kostas Sloukas.

The Greens entered the second half up by 11 (46-35) with Nunn scoring 12 points and a little bit later Panathinaikos pushed the lead to 13 (52-39).

Still, Fenerbahce closed the third period down by eight (62-54) and Colson made it a six-point game (62-56) to start the fourth.

The home team continued the push and with a three by Devin Hall, Fenerbahce got the lead (67-65) with six minutes and a half minutes left.

With the game on the line and Fenerbahce up by one (73-72), Jerian Grant pressured the ball in the inbound, Biberovic lost it and Sloukas with a big three gave the lead back to Panathinaikos (75-73).

In the next play, Lessort stole the ball and scored (77-73) with 28 seconds left and the game was over.

Photo credit: EuroLeague