EUROLEAGUE – Panathinaikos beat CSKA to European crown
BERLIN (Euroleague) - CSKA Moscow almost pulled off a miracle comeback in Berlin on Sunday but Panathinaikos held on for a 73-71 triumph to win the Euroleague. Zeljko Obradovic's Greens, who survived 84-82 in their all-Greek semi-final showdown against Olympiacos on Friday, beat CSKA in the title game for the second time in three years. The club has ...
BERLIN (Euroleague) - CSKA Moscow almost pulled off a miracle comeback in Berlin on Sunday but Panathinaikos held on for a 73-71 triumph to win the Euroleague.
Zeljko Obradovic's Greens, who survived 84-82 in their all-Greek semi-final showdown against Olympiacos on Friday, beat CSKA in the title game for the second time in three years.
The club has now captured five Euroleague titles while Serbian great Obradovic has won seven as a coach.
CSKA made their record seventh straight Final Four appearance and grinded out an 82-72 win over Barcelona in Friday's first semi-final.
At half-time of Sunday's championship, Panathinaikos had a 48-28 stranglehold on proceedings at half-time and they extended the advantage to 56-33 midway through the third quarter.
Just when it looked as if Ettore Messina's men were headed for a lopsided defeat, the defending champions turned up the intensity on defense and clawed the deficit back to 56-46 with 10 minutes remaining.
They continued to chip away in the fourth and eventually pulled to within just one with 26 seconds remaining on a three-ball from Ramunas Siskauskas - a member of the Panathinaikos team that beat CSKA two years earlier.
Dimitris Diamantidis made two free throws with 10 seconds to play, only for the Greece international to then foul his former teammate Siskauskas two seconds later.
The Lithuanian sank both of his attempts, and CSKA then fouled Sarunas Jasikevicius.
An excellent free-throw shooter, Jasikevicius missed the first but made the second and CSKA called timeout.
When play resumed, the Russians got the ball into the hands of Siskauskas and though closely guarded he put up a potential game-winning shot from behind the arc.
The ball fell to the hoop and hit the rim on the left and then right but stayed out as the buzzer sounded.
"About the last shot," Siskauskas said, "we tried to go for a layup, but if there was no possibility, we would have to go for the long shot.
"I tried to read the situation and I went for it. I think it was not a bad shot, but I just missed it. That's part of the game."
Panathinaikos' Vassilis Spanoulis, who cut short his NBA career after one season to return to Greece, scored 13 points and was voted MVP of the Final Four.
Barcelona beat Olympiacos in the third-place game, 95-79.
FIBA