Regal FC Barcelona and Panathinaikos both drew first blood in their quarter-final playoff games tonight as they defeated Unics Kazan and Maccabi Electra respectively in game one.
Barcelona were reasonably comfortable against Unics Kazan, winning 78-66, but did endure a fourth quarter fightback from the Russian side and a Henry Domercant jumper pulled Barca’s lead back to just three points at 62-59. But Juan Carlos Navarro and Pete Mickeal steadied the ship for the hosts as they finished the stronger of the two sides.
Mickeal finished with a season-high 22 points and seven rebounds, Erazem Lorbek hit 15 and Navarro added 13 for the victors. Brazilian playmaker Marcelino Huertas dished out 10 assists also for the hosts.
Unics, who plugged away and played with a lot of confidence can go into game two with a belief that they can compete with the joint favourites for this year’s Euroleague crown. They were led by Australian Natan Jawai, who hit 15 points, supported by Domercant’s 12.
“Defence and rebounds are the most important thing. Unics is a very good team, but we managed to stay calm on offense and play good defence,” Mickeal said afterwards.
Barcelona coach Xavi Pascual thought that the team’s desire to win almost cost them the game: “We had a strong start and I believe we could have even taken a bigger leadthan the 12 points we had. The desire to win the game caused us to make mistakes,” he said.
The two teams will meet again on Thursday night.
Champions dominant.
Like he did in last year’s final, Dimitris Diamantidis produced an outstanding all-round display as Panathinaikos saw-off Maccabi Electra 93-73 in-front of a full house of 18,000 at Athens’ OAKA.
Last year’s MVP hit 15 points, five rebounds and eight assists as the hosts breezed through a woeful Maccabi front-line. Nick Calathes poured in 13 points with David Logan and Mike Batiste each hitting 11.
Maccabi, who fell behind early and never recovered were led by 21 from Keith Langford with Devin Smith hitting 17 points.
The two teams will collide again on Thursday.
