The match started with the visitors dictating: they led 5:2, and at the halfway point of the quarter, 9:4. Although the Greeks tried to take the initiative, Maccabi kept the reins of the game in their hands – 13:8.
The visitors were ahead 20:14 in the last minute of the half, and finally won it only 21:19.
At the beginning of the second half, the teams played evenly 24:24, but the representatives of Athens made a mistake and “Maccabi” ran away again 28:24.
In this series, both teams won back-to-back: in the first match, the Greeks defeated their opponents 95:88, then Maccabi won 85:83, after that the representatives of Athens took the lead again with a 95:79 victory, and in the fourth match, the Tel Aviv basketball players were stronger. 91:87.
The same confrontation took place in the 2012 season, when “Panathinaikos” and “Maccabi” played in the fifth match of the series – although the Israeli team overcame a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter and equalized the result 85:85, Dimitris Diamantidis scored the decisive points with penalties and helped Athens to defeat the representatives and advance to the finals.
The winner of this pair will face the winner of the pair of Fenerbahce Istanbul and Monaco in the final four on May 24-26 in Berlin. There, the series is also 2:2.
A place in the semi-finals was earlier secured by Real Madrid, who won the series 3-0 against fellow Spanish team Vitoria Baskonia with Tad Sedekerski.
Tags: Decisive showdown ticket EuroLeague Final Panathinaikos Maccabi
