Panathinaikos opened the new Euroleague season with a strong defensive display providing a win over Spaniards Power Electronics 56-72 in Valencia.

Panathinaikos starts 1-0 in Group D along with a pair of upset winners, Union Olimpija and Armani Jeans Milano.

The Greens took over with an early 0-10 run and enjoyed leads as high as 16 points before Valencia cut it to 45-51 in the 29th minute.

From that point forward, Panathinaikos kept raising the difference again to win going away.

Mike Batiste led a true ensemble effort with 13 points while Stratos Perperoglou added 10 for the winners.

Dimitris Diamantidis directed the show, however, finishing with 8 points, 7 assists and 4 steals for Panathinaikos, while Aleks Maric pulled 9 rebounds.

Valencia got 16 points from Rafa Martinez and 15 from Victor Claver, but suffered from 22 turnovers, 11 of which those two players shared.

PAO coach Zeljko Obradovic told reporters that his side was still under-prepared. “It is still only our second match of the season, and there is an evident lack of rhythm in our attack.

“In the third quarter, the Valencia defence was effective and we did not react well. It’s important to have won here in Valencia. I think it’s a difficult place to win, and not many teams will do it.”

His opposite Manuel Hussain, said that the Greek side deserved to win.

“Panathinaikos deserved the win. We played four games in one. In the first and the third quarters, we were better at defence.

“We had problems with the rotations and that was really bad for the team. We lowered our level of intensity at some moments and we were dominated”.

Olympiakos down Real Madrid

On Monday, Olympiakos BC became the first team to register a win in the Euroleague by downing Real Madrid 82-66 in the competition’s Opening Game at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Pireaus, in Group B.

Olympiakos signalled their Euroleague intentions with a big display, but Madrid showed great character and stayed in the game for the opening three quarters.
Ioannis Bourousis paced the winners with 16 points and 7 rebounds in less than 23 minutes.

Vassilis Spanoulis had 16 points, reigning Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic added 15 and Rasho Nesterovic netted 12 for Olympiakos.

Teodosic and Spanoulis each dished 7 assists, one shy of the Euroleague Opening Game record that still belongs to Theo Papaloukas.

Sergio Llull led Madrid with 18 points. Carlos Suarez added 12 and Ante Tomic scored 10 for the guests. Felipe Reyes led a 0-9 run that allowed Madrid to take its biggest lead, 19-28, early in the second quarter.

Bourousis stepped up in an 11-0 run that brought Olympiakos back to life and free throws by Spanoulis put the Reds ahead 36-35 at halftime.

Olympiakos did not trail after the break, but a three-pointer by Suarez kept Madrid as close as 57-56.

Olympiakos broke the game ope with a 15-0 run highlighted by Loukas Mavrokefalidis’s incredible buzzer-beating triple.

Teodosic struck from downtown to make it 72-56 and Madrid did not recover in the final five minutes.

New head Reds coach Dusan Ivkovic said that his team is still gelling together.

“We deserved the win tonight. We had a bunch of problems, though. This was the first Euroleague game of the season, and we only had played one more official game so far.

“We are together as a team since four weeks ago: that is not enough time to play as expected. We thought that some players would help us more, but Papanikolaou, Keselj and Mavrokefalidis did not deliver in the second period, and we were lucky not to be down by many points at halftime.

“We won the battle inside with Nesterovic and Bouroussis, who did a good job against Tomic and Reyes. Especially, Bouroussis was a surprise for me since he came back from injury and was not completely ready to play.

“We had 15 assists in the second half, had a great reaction against Madrid’s zone defence and I am very happy with that.

“We committed only 10 turnovers in contrast to our 25 in the Greek Cup game against Panellinios. That made the difference between the two teams tonight; the assist-to-turnovers ratio.

“I don’t think that the final margin will play any role in the final group standings. It’s too early to talk about that.”