Panellinios BC hosts Brose Baskets Bamberg on Tuesday night in the teams’ Group K opener. Panellinios comes off a strong regular season in which it went undefeated at home, was 4-2 overall and won Group G. Bamberg lost a chance to win Group H when it lost its regular season finale, but nonetheless finished 4-2 and advanced from second place. Panellinios is an experienced team that features three players averaging double figures in points and three more averaging between 8.8 and 9.3 points per game. Head coach Ilias Zouros’s men biggest weakness is turnovers: Their 18.5 turnovers per game were most in the regular season. Bamberg is led by forward Predrag Suput, but head coach Chris Fleming has many others he can count on. The game will feature some interesting macthups in the paint where the hosts boast center Ian Vougioukas and power forward Britton Johnsen. Bamberg answers with the tandem of Tibor Pleiss and Elton Brown. The visitors have a deep backcourt with the likes of Anton Gavel and John Goldsberry at point guard and Karsten Tadda, Robert Garrett, Brian Roberts and Casey Jacobsen on the wings. Panellinios uses Rod Blakney and Vasilios Xanthopoulos at point guard and Kostas Charalampidis, Josh Davis, Manolis Papamakarios and leading scorer Devin Smith on the wings. Two important matchups worth following are between the do-it-all forward Suput and Johnson and between Smith and Jacobsen on the perimeter. All four players have Euroleague experience and will be looked to by teammates to help set the tone. Panellinios won all three of its regular season home games by double figures and limited its opponents to just 63 points per game. Bamberg will need the duo of Gavel and Goldsberry to organize the attack and put Panellinios on the defense to have a chance at a crucial road win to open the Last 16.
REFEREES: Milivoje Jovcic, Vicente Bulto, Marko Juras