By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
BERLIN, Germany – Limiting Fenerbahce only to 57 points scored, Panathinaikos managed to resist, survive, and eventually advance to the championship game on Sunday, fighting for the EuroLeague title.
Among all the players who contributed to the Greek team’s victory, Juancho Hernangomez had valuable minutes off the bench to go one win away from the big prize. “I’m happy, I feel great. I feel like we did our job today, we deserved to win. Everybody stepped up, and we have to get ready for Sunday”, he commented to Eurohoops in the team’s locker room after the victory.
Asked what was the key to getting over Fenerbahce, he had his mind clear. “Defense. All five who were together on the court were synchronized, all five were doing their 100%. They denied, they pressed, and they boxed out. Everybody played as one, and that was the key. Fenerbahce is a great team with a great coach, so it’s hard to beat them by 15. I think everybody stepped up today and we deserved to win”, he also said.
Asked about the flexibility of his team, he emphasized how victories can come even though Kostas Sloukas or Kendrick Nunn doesn’t live the best of nights. “[Nick] Calathes was really good on Kendrick [Nunn], they made him live a very hard night. But everybody stepped up and that’s amazing about us”, he underlined.
“It’s a team effort, everybody played very good defense. Doesn’t mind if you play 5, 10, or 35 minutes. We all won, these are the last games of the season. It’s one more game, you come here to die on the floor, to die for the team”, the Spanish forward convincingly stated.
Caught up looking at his phone in Panathinaikos‘ locker room, he was reading all the messages of congratulations he was sent. “All the people who stop for five seconds to text you make it big time. My family and my friends are really happy for me, they know what it means, what we’ve been through all this season. They’re happy, and we need just one more win to win this”, he finally said.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eurokinissi