In Athens, Hapoel Tel Aviv fell to Panathinaikos 93-82 as Kendrick Nunn along with Kostas Sloukas and Omer Yurtseven were able to pull away from the reds as the fourth quarter got underway to overcome fine performances by Tyler Ennis, Collin Malcolm, Antonio Blakeney and Elijah Bryant.

With the defeat Hapoel’s record dropped to 12-5 in Euroleague play. Ennis scored 16 points and Blakeney put in 15 points in the loss while Nunn scored 19 points, Cedi Osman added 17 points and Yurtsveen scored 11 points in the win.

Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis reflected on the game, “It was a very interesting game and we open it very sloppy and Panathinaikos very aggressively. It cost us a lot shooting very poorly from the free throw line towards us but it costs a lot and we can5 have those types 9f lapses and it was difficult for us to come back.”

“In the beginning of the game, our plan was to be aggressive against their two key players, Micic and Bryant and we were successful in this with Kalaitzakis and Grant,” Panathinaikos Head Coach Ergin Ataman said. “We made perfect defense, we didn’t let them find their usual baskets on the pick-and-roll shots, their penetrations in the paint.”

Kendrick Nunn spoke about the win, “I was hobbling around for the last two, three days with the ankle, but when game-time comes, adrenaline gets going and I’m bringing whatever I can to the game.mWe played Fener, the reigning champs and Hapoel, they’re no.1 in the standings right now. So, two big games. The lights are bright, I’m going to get out there. As long as I’m not on crutches, anything like that, God willing, I’m going to play if I’m able, for sure.”

Tyler Ennis looked back at the loss, “We played a really great team in a good atmosphere and we punched back all the way through the game, but if we would have made our free throws we would have been in the game. We’ll learn from this and we are playing them again, so I’m looking forward to that.”