Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Panathinaikos 77-73 after withstanding a wild fourth quarter comeback from the Greens to move their record to 3-2 on the young Euroleague season. James Nunnally scored at will over the first half to give the Yellow & Blue a 33-23 lead while Roman Sorkin, Ante Zizic and Keenan Evans helped bump up the advantage to a game high 20 points late in the game.

However, Daryl Macon, Ioannis Papapetrou, Nemanja Nedovic and Okaro White all began hitting their shots to get to within 4 points with under a minute to go. But a bucket by Angelo Caloiaro and free throws by Scottie Wilbekin made sure that would be as close as the visitors could get as Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad notched the win.

Nunnally led the way with 18 points, Wilbekin added 16 points, Derrick Williams chipped in with 11 points in the victory. Macon led the way for Panathinaikos with 17 points, Papapetrou put in 15 points and White scored 14 points in the loss.

Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Keenan Evans got the hosts on the board early on in the first quarter but Ioannis Papapetrou and Nemanja Nedovic gave Panathinaikos a 7-3 lead midway through the period. Jalen Reynolds and Evans nailed short range jumpers while the former also hit a mini-hook at the other end Okaro White stripped the ball and went in for an uncontested dunk and Yogi Ferrell fed Georgios Papagiannis inside for an easy bucket. But James Nunnally went off for 8 points and Roman Sorkin hammered home a mega dunk to give Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad a 19-13 lead after ten minutes of action.

Nunnally continued to fill the bucket from every which way as he scored inside and outside to bump up his game total to 15 points and Maccabi’s lead 28-18 with 6:35 left in the second quarter. Scottie Wilbekin scored a midrange jumper, Ante Zizic took a Nunnally ball and put it down as the Yellow & Blue went into halftime with a 10-point, 33-23 advantage.

Derrick Williams opened the third quarter with a triple, Nedovic fed Papagiannis for a dunk bit Wilbekin did the same for Reynolds at the other end as Wilbekin scored from behind the arc to in widen the gap to 43-25 midway through the frame. White and Williams traded triples, Evans put in a layup while Ferrell scored his first Euroleague points from downtown as Daryl Macon hit a comer 3-pointer but Zizic and Sorkin scored in the paint to bump up Maccabi’s lead to 55-40 after thirty minutes of play.

Wilbekin and Zizic scored to get the fourth quarter off and running while Wilbekin then drilled a deep 3-pointer and Sorkin added points as the hosts kept piling on the points to go up 64-44 with 7 minutes remaining in regulation time. While and Macon chipped away at the lead with a pair of triples, Nedovic added points and Macon drained another triple to chop the lead down to 66-59 with 3:30 left in the period.

Williams scored a layup, Wilbekin dialled up from long distance, Nedovic came back with a triple once again as did Papapetrou to get to within 4-points, 72-68 with 58.4 seconds left. Angelo Caloiaro scored off the glass, Papapetrou swished a 3, Macon scored a layup but Wilbekin scored his free throws as time wound down to secure the victory.