Twentieth day of the Euroleague for the Virtus Segafredo Bologna which hosts at the Segafredo Arena the Panathinaikos.
Virtus-Panathinaikos, the match
Ready to go and Teodosic opens the game with a triple, but immediately equalized by Williams: in the following actions, parity is the master with the rhythms that have not yet reached the highest rounds with the two teams still in the study phase. A dunk by Ojeleye and the following triple by Shengelia deliver the first advantage to Segafredo who extends to 10-5 in the middle of the set, taking advantage of the Greeks’ less than perfect shooting percentages. The black and white defense proves to be particularly difficult for the green-and-whites to overcome as they struggle to find simple and clean shots and suffer another break which leads Segafredo to have a 9-point lead with 1 minute remaining in the first set. The partial ends with Panathinaikos who find a basket from the paint for 18-11 with which the fourth ends. In the second set, Virtus keeps pace high and plays quickly with a lot of concentration. However, the Greeks, who in the first quarter had had bad shooting percentages, reversed the march and a couple of baskets found the bottom of the retina, forcing Segafredo into a time out, on 27 to 19 after 4 minutes from the start of the partial . After a moment of tarnish, which brought Pana back to -4 at 28-24, some quick actions by Segafredo find Hackett and Jaiteh, good at capitalizing on possessions and bringing the lead back to 10 points. Driven by a hyper vigilant Shengelia on both sides of the field, including a block from highlights, Virtus firmly maintains the advantage by sometimes committing some naivety, however giving the impression of having perfect control of the match. Thus ends the first half with Segafredo leading 43-30.
New boarding of Panathinaikos in the second half to try to mend the tear: the Greeks come back strong, able to get closer up to 44-37 thanks to plays by Lee and Wolters who find important baskets, both from beyond the arc and from inside of the area. Just the three seconds area is the main hunting ground of the black Vu who often find the way to be dangerous in the painting: Jaiteh and Hackett play the charge and break the spell that saw Virtus having several difficulties in finding the free man to shoot. The reconstituted advantage of Segafredo on +11 allows Teodosic and his companions to have more freedom in playing and turns into effective games with excellent ball circulation. However, this is not enough and the Greeks have the strength to respond and get back in contact until -5 in a game that is anything but closed, as sanctioned by the end of the third quarter: 55-51. In the last quarter Panathinaikos completes the comeback and returns to contact with a triple from Williams who sets the score 55-54. After almost 3 minutes the only basket turns out to be Williams’ one due to the inability of the two teams to produce precise actions due to the great expenditure of energy required by the match. Ponitka’s triple delivers the new advantage to the green-and-whites who make rebounds in attack, and consequently extra chances, their main offensive resource. 57-57 is the new score after Shengelia’s free throws which restores parity with 6 minutes on the clock. Cordinier gets up from the corner to unload the shot that from beyond the arc finds the bottom of the retina for the new Segafredo lead on 60-57. This triple restores enormous confidence in Virtus who captures all the available rebounds by returning to the outsides and the coolness of Teodosic from the line 4/4 for him, brings the black Vu back to the lead on 66-57. Panathinaikos, increasingly struggling with shooting, struggled to score, so much so that they only scored 6 points in this last period. Once again a triple from Teodosic, exactly on the stroke of the last minute of the game, puts the match in a very serious mortgage setting the score at 72-62, further embellished by Shengelia’s basket in penetration: Papagiannis’ basket is worthless, if not to close the game on 74-64 (virtus.it).
Virtus-Panathinaikos, the scoreboard
Virtus Segafredo Bologna vs Panathinaikos Athens: 74 -64 (1Q 18 – 11; 2Q 43 – 30; 3Q 55 – 51)
Virtus Segafredo Bologna: Cordinier 5; Belinelli; Pajola; Bako 11; Jaiteh 8; Lundberg 9; Shengelia 16; Hackett 7; Mickey 1; Weems; Ojeleye 5; Teodosic 12
All: Scariolo
Panathinaikos Athens: Kalaitzakis; Wolters 15; Lee 7; Papagiannis 6; Williams 10; Kalaitzakis; Bacon 8; Chougkaz; Ponitka 13; Grigonis 3; Gudaitis 2
All: Radonjic
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