A battle of two green teams finished with a 80-69 victory of Panathinaikos. Greek champions visited Kaunas for a clash with Zalgiris. Visitors were clear favourites and didn't leave any chances for an upset.
The score was close till the end of the first quarter when Panathinaikos made a run and pulled away by 9 points. It was inspired by Sarunas Jasikevicius. The last time when he played in Kaunas was back in 2004 when he was wearing Maccabi Tel Aviv jersey.
Saras received a warm welcome and once again confirmed the rule that Lithuanian players play very well against Lithuanian teams.
Panathinaikos didn't stop in the second quarter. Greek giants continued increasing their lead which reached 14 points at the half time. Even though at some parts of the game it looked like Zalgiris is going to make a run but PAO controlled the situation.
Willie Deane scored 7 points but couldn't finish with a positive index ranking anyway. One of Zalgiris' most expensive players is proving to be not the best investment.
On the other side of the court three players finished the game in double digits for Panathinaikos. Namely, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Mike Batiste and Nikola Pekovic.
The win puts Panathinaikos in a tie with the group leaders Montepaschi with 5 wins and 1 loss.
Meanwhile Zalgiris and Le Mans are the only teams that haven't tasted a win in Euroleague so far and are almost certain to miss Top 16 this year.
69 – Zalgiris (13+13+21+22): Paulius Jankunas 21, Jonas Maciulis 10, Mantas Kalnietis 10, Willie Deane 7, Loren Woods 6, Arturas Milaknis 6, Zygimantas Janavicius 4, Dainius Salenga 3, Tadas Klimavicius 2.
80 – Panathinaikos (22+18+21+19): Sarunas Jasikevicius 15, Mike Batiste 14, Nikola Pekovic 13, Antonis Fotsis 9, Dimitris Diamantidis 7, Vasilis Spanoulis 6, Stratos Perperoglou 5, Drew Nicholas 4, Dusan Sakota 3, Dusan Kecman 2, Nikos Hatzivrettas 2.
