Vital win for Barça away at the OAKA with an 85-77 victory over Panathinaikos in the Euroleague. Mirotic and Higgins played starring roles in the away game with 25 and 16 points respectively.
Jasikevicius' team started strongly and after 10 minutes Barça were 26-17 up in Greece. The home side pulled back the deficit at half time, at one point the blaugranes were 12 points up, to go in 47-39 down at the break.
In the second half Panathinaikos raised their game with former blaugrana Hezonja leading the scoring for the home side. There was just six points in it going into the final quarter at 70-64 but Barça held their nerve thanks to Higgins and a three pointer from Mirotic as Barça retained their lead in the Euroleague.
MATCH STATS:
Panathinaikos, 77
Barça, 85
Panathinaikos: Sant Roos (5), White (7), Hezonja (21), Bentil (14) and Mitoglou (13) -starting five-, Mack (11), Papagiannis (4), Bochoridis (2) and Kaselakis (-).
Barça: Calathes (9), Hanga (4), Higgins (16), Mirotic (25) and Davies (8) -starting five-, Bolmaro (8), Smits (6), Claver (2), Oriola (2), Abrines (2), Kuric (3) and Westermann (-).