The champs kept their perfect home record intact
Panathinaikos thrashes ASVEL, 92-68
Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens remained undefeated at OAKA Altion by thrashing LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 92-68 in the Greek capital in Round 6 on Wednesday. Panathinaikos improved to 4-2 in the standings while ASVEL dropped to 2-4 and is now on a four-game road losing streak.
Lorenzo Brown paced the winners with 17 points. Kendrick Nunn added 14, Juancho Hernangomez had 13 and Omer Yurtseven 10 for Panathinaikos. Edwin Jackson led ASVEL with 13 points. Shaquille Harrison tallied 12 points, 4 assists and 4 steals and Neal Sako also scored 12 for the visitors.
Game Videos
Nunn hit a jumper, fed Yurtseven for an alley-oop slam and followed Hernangomez's dunk with a three-pointer that capped a 9-1 Panathinaikos run. Hernangomez bettered Sako's jumper with a triple. Yurtseven followed a dunk with a jump hook, which caused ASVEL to call timeout at 16-5. After Hernangomez scored again, Harrison answered with a driving layup and Sako's layup got ASVEL closer, 18-9. Cedi Osman hit an off-balance shot and Brown added a three-pointer to make it 23-9. Tarik Black dunked and Melvin Ajinca improved on Hernangomez's layup with a three-pointer. Brown's electric driving layup gave the Greens a 27-14 lead after 10 minutes.
Mbaye Ndiaye scored around the basket early in the second quarter. Mathias Lessort answered with a finger-roll layup. Jackson and Ndiaye got ASVEL within 30-20. Konstantinos Mitoglou took over with a fastbreak layup that Charles Kahudi improved on with a three-pointer. Brown answered from beyond the arc and added a put-back slam for a 38-23 Panathinaikos lead. After Sako and Nunn traded layups, Harrison's fastbreak basket got ASVEL within 40-27. Nunn immediately struck from downtown and Yurtseven dunked again. Sako banked in a jump hook that fixed the halftime score at 45-29.
Jerian Grant nailed a jumper soon after the break. Sako answered with a jump hook that Nunn matched with a jumper. Lessort scored around the basket, Harrison copied him at the other end and Lessort's put-back dunk made it a 15-point game, 53-38. Brown ignited the crowd with his second put-back slam of the night and erased Admiral Schofield's triple with his own shot from beyond the arc. Nunn added a fastbreak slam that broke the game open, 60-41. Harrison buried a floater and Black scored in traffic to bring ASVEL within 61-48. Mitoglou hit a jump hook and added a tip-in, Kostas Sloukas added a three-pointer and Lessort dunked to keep Panathinaikos way ahead, 70-52, through three quarters.
Sloukas fired in his second three-pointer early in the fourth quarter and matched Jackson's fallaway jumper with a floater that gave Panathinaikos a 75-54 lead. Schofield struck from beyond the arc and Jackson added a driving layup to bring ASVEL a bit closer, 77-59, with over 6 minutes left. Hernangomez downed a baseline jumper, fed Brown for a fastbreak layup and banked in an off-balance shot to boost the Greens' lead to 83-59. Jackson scored again and Kostas Antetokounmpo ignited the crowd with a wild dunk in traffic. Panathinaikos had no trouble to control the game in the final minutes and cruise to a well-deserved victory.