U18 Varese Academy made history by knocking off U18 Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 78-53 for its first victory at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament. The ANGT Varese host side finished the first half on a 14-0 run and never looked back for a 1-2 record in Group A.
Varese makes history with first ANGT victory
Next Gen News
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Valdo Guimdo picked up 24 points and 10 rebounds while Zhao Wei totalled 21 points, 7 assists and 3 steals and Carlo Cane scored 14 points for the winners. Varese will take on U18 ratiopharm Ulm on Sunday for fifth place. Panathinaikos, which got 11 points from Emmanouil Dimou, will face U18 AX Armani Exchange Milan on Sunday for seventh place.
After Cane scored the first points of the game, Dimou converted a three-point play and Neoklis Avdalas had four points for a 4-11 Panathinaikos lead. Varese responded with a 9-2 close to the first quarter, which was deadlocked 13-13. A Thomas Dimitros triple had the Greens up 15-18 before Guimdo scored four points in a 9-0 run to lead 24-18. Varese was up three points when it shut down Panathinaikos for nearly the final 5 minutes and reeled off a 14-0 spurt to lead 40-23 at halftime.
Dimou tallied four points early in the second half to make it 42-27 before Zhou drained two three-pointers and added four more points in a 16-4 run for a 58-31 advantage. And the host side led 59-36 after 30 minutes. Varese made sure Panathinaikos didn’t have any thoughts of a comeback by starting the fourth quarter with a 10-2 surge to lead 69-38. The Greek team did not get closer than 24 points the rest of the way.