Defending champion Panathinaikos fought off injuries, foul trouble and a stubborn Armani Jeans Milano to start the 2009-10 campaign with a 67-75 victory at the Mediolanuforum in Milan, Italy.
The Greens outscored Milano 2-9 at a crucial stretch late in the fourth quarter to walk away with the win.
Olympiakos also enjoyed a huge win while Maroussi was desperately unlucky in its first Euroleague season match, losing by one point at home after a heart-breaking three-point buzzer beater gave CSKA the win.
AJ Milano (Ita) 67 Panathinaikos 75
Milano was in the game for 35 minutes and the lead changed hands four times early in the fourth quarter, but despite both of Panathinaikos’s center fouling out, the Green guards were able to step up and guarantee the win.
Vassilis Spanoulis led the charge with 19 points and 5 assists, Nikola Pekovic scored 17 before fouling out, Stratos Perperoglou had 13 points and 4 steals and Dimitris Diamantidis finished with 12 for Panathinaikos, which was without the injured Mike Batiste, Sarunas Jasikevicus and Kostas Tsartsaris.
The champs head home to face Khimki in their Group D home opener next week.
PAO’s head coach Zeljko Obradovic said following the match, “We expected a tough game tonight, also because it was the first official game of the season. There were many problems during practices because of injuries, but also because we have many new young players.
“All of our players are playing with motivation, but we made a lot of mistakes in offence, with too many open shots missed. Pekovic had some foul trouble and Shermadini had a lot of minutes. We didn’t play bad, but we have to improve,” he continued.
Spanoulis echoed his coach’s sentiments. “It was the first official game of the season for us, so I think we can be satisfied with the victory and the effort we made. We missed too many chances with open shots, but we managed the situation with our defence in the second half. We maybe underestimated Milano in the first half, but then we were able to do what was necessary to win this game.”
Olympiakos 94 Orleanaise (Fra) 72
Olympiakos started the new season just as it hoped by pounding Entente Orleanaise 94-72 Wednesday at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus.
Linas Kleiza made a sparkling Euroleague debut with 23 points and 9 rebounds and head coach Panagiotis Giannakis made the most of his deep bench as 10 players played at least 14 minutes in the winning effort.
Olympiakos dominated the glass 37-21 and shot 11 for 15 (73.3%) from the paint en route to the win. Josh Childress added 15 for the winners, while Von Wafer came off the bench for 10 in 15 minutes and Nikola Vujcic added 10 in 14 minutes. Olympiakos will look to back up its opening win when it travels to Spain to meet Unicaja next week.
Reds guard Patrick Beverly noted his side’s deep bench in his post-match comments; “It was our first official game this season and I think we had a good performance in general terms. Our team is really deep and every player coming off the bench can step in and contribute. There is a lot of room for improvement and there are certain areas of the game in which we are working hard to get better. When the new players, such as I am, catch up with the old ones, the team will work perfectly.”
Maroussi 65 CSKA Moscow (RUS) 66
CSKA Moscow started the season in an incredible way by edging Maroussi 65-66 in Athens on Wednesday on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Viktor Khryapa.
The final seconds proved to be among the most exciting finishes of a Euroleague game in recent history. The game featured three lead changes in the final 10.4 seconds.
Trajan Langdon downed a baseline jumper for a 62-63 CSKA edge, but Billy Keys buried a seven-meter three-pointer to put Maroussi back ahead, 65-63, with 1.4 seconds to go.
CSKA called timeout and managed to put the ball in the hands of Khryapa, who sank an outstanding fade-away three-pointer at the buzzer.
Langdon led the winners with 18 points. J.R. Holden added 16, Ramunas Siskauskas had 12 while Khryapa just got 5, but added 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks.
Kostas Kaimakoglou led Maroussi with 15 points. Keys added 14, Dimitris Mavroeidis 13 and Jamon Lucas had 10 for the hosts, who were playing in Europe’s premier competition for the first time.
Maroussi guard Billy Keys summed up the side’s feelings with the tough loss, “Almost winning is the worst case scenario for a defeat. We had bad luck at the buzzer and lost. The important think is, though, that we proved we deserve a spot amongst Europe’s best teams. We are looking forward for the upcoming games and for getting our first win.”