By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Kendrick Nunn scored nine out of his game-high 26 points during the last 2:06 minutes to push Panathinaikos past ASVEL Villeurbanne 96 – 93.
With the score 82 – 86 for Panathinaikos, Nunn drained a triple and then hit a pair of free throws to put his team up 88 – 92 with 45 seconds remaining. Nando De Colo missed a 3-point attempt, and then Kostas Sloukas added 2-2 from the line.
Shaquille Harrison kept ASVEL in the game with a 3-pointer, and then Nunn secured the win of Panathinaikos with two free throws. Thanks to this win, the Greens improved to 17-10.
“Tough finish,” Nunn said. “We had our runs, but they came back. It came out in the last 2-3 minutes. We got it done with our team effort. We have talked about how we want to take care of business on the road, and that’s our goal.”
ASVEL dropped to 11-16, to see its Play-In chances getting smaller. Behind the trio of Melvin Ajinca (18 points), Neal Sako (17 points) and Nando De Colo (16 points, five assists), the French side erased a 17-point deficit (16-33) and came back from down 61 – 71 early in the third period to take a 76 – 75 lead halfway through the fourth quarter.
An exciting finale
Both teams traded a couple of big shots while a key sequence took place shortly before crunch time.
ASVEL was down 82 – 83, and then Andre Roberson ran on transition to potentially put his team up. He missed and then committed an unsportsmanlike foul on Sloukas. The result was a 5-point play for Panathinaikos since Nunn made the triple after his teammate’s free throws.
Panathinaikos managed to make some key plays and stay one step ahead of ASVEL for the remainder of the match.