Panathinaikos topped visiting Zalgiris Kaunas 84-76 on Friday at Olympic Sports Center Athens in both team’s EuroLeague opener. Nikos Pappas led the way with 19 points and Chris Singleton added 13 points and 7 rebounds for the winners. The visitors held a slim margin going into the last 10 minutes, however Pappas hit a pair of three-pointers during a 10-3 run that put Panathinaikos in front for good. Pappas’s steal and a Calathes triple with 2:17 left opened up a 77-68 lead, the biggest of the night, and helped the Greens avoid drama in the final moments. Calathes finished with 13 points and Ioannis Bourousis had 11 points and 6 rebounds for the victors. Brock Motum scored a career-high 19 points for Zalgiris. Paulius Jankunas added 13 points and 8 rebounds, Lukas Lekavicius netted 12 and Arturas Milaknis 11 in defeat.
Pappas and Bourousis helped the hosts go up 20-15 at the end of first quarter, and Bourousis extended the margin to 7 points at the start of the second. But a three-point play by Motum and a triple by Arturas Milaknis ignited a 0-12 Zalgiris run, which put the visitors in front 22-27 midway through the second. However, Panathinaikos quickly regained the lead with a pair of triples each from Antonis Fotsis and James Feldeine, including Feldeine’s shot that beat the halftime buzzer and gave Panathinaikos a 37-30 halftime advantage. Led by Lukas Lekavicius, the visitors opened the second half with a 2-11 run and took a 39-41 lead. Zalgiris held its slim led and entered the final quarter up 51-52, but the hosts assumed control again with back-to-back threes from Pappas, before a put-back from Singleton opened a 69-62 cushion with just over five minutes to go. Zalgiris refused to go away; Milaknis hit a triple to cut the deficit to 2, but Pappas’s steal and a fastbreak dunk followed by a Calathes triple gave the hosts breathing room. Motum got Zalgiris within 78-74 entering the final minute, but the visitors could not get closer than that.
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