Panathinaikos OPAP – Barça Lassa: Losers in a tight contest (76-70)

Narrow defeat in a tight encounter for Barça Lassa as they went down 76-70 in their visit to Panathinaikos OPAP. Svetislav Pesic’s team were always in the game, even when they were 10 points down, but in the end their efforts went unrewarded.

Barça Lassa found themselves 8-0 down early on in the encounter but with Séraphin in outstanding form they managed to reduce the lead to four points at 27-23 before a three pointer from Langford just before half time gave Panathinaikos a 34-25 lead at the break.

In the second half the blaugranes improved offensively and they fought back to find themselves just two points in arrears at 42-40 thanks to a three pointer from Kuric. Heurtel leveled the scores before the Greeks edge in front again at 55-50.

Panathinaikos maintained a slender lead throughout the fourth quarter as Barça Lassa sought to mount a comeback. However, the final minutes did not go the blaugranes way and they missed out on a sixth win this season in the Euroleague.

 
MATCH STATS
Panathinaikos, 76
Barça Lassa, 70

Panathinaikos: Langford (8), Calathes (2), Papapetrou (6), Mitoglou (7) and Lasme (11) –starting five-, Thomas (14), Pappas (7), Gist (5), Vougioukas (2), Lekavicius (3), Lojeski (8) and Antetokounmpo (3).

Barça Lassa: Heurtel (12), Kuric (17), Claver (7), Singleton (4) and Tomic (6) –starting five-, Séraphin (15), Pangos (4), Ribas (1), Blazic (-), Smits (-) and Oriola (4).