Barça Regal beats Panathinaikos Athens 64-53 and classifies for Euroleague Basketball Final Four

Barcelona (CNA).- Barça Regal has beaten Panathinaikos 64-53 to classify for the Euroleague Final Four, to be played next May in London. The Catalans dominated the game from start to finish thanks to the leadership of Juan Carlos Navarro who scored 15 points. After a thrilling 5-game quarter-final series, Barça will try to win its third Euroleague title and faces Real Madrid in the semi-finals. The four previous games were very tight with each team winning one game at home until this last game, in which the Palau Blaugrana home factor was the key to the local win.

The fifth and final game of the quarterfinal series was expected to be a thriller, so the Palau Blaugrana was a sellout. Barça Regal started by playing very fluently in offence and were ahead by six points after just seven minutes of the game. The referee blew quickly for a third foul on Panathinaikos star, Dimitris Diamantidis, and Barça went on a 8-0 run increasing the difference to a 14-point advantage.

In the second period Panathinaikos tried to reduce the disadvantage, but the local team was on fire and reached the biggest advantage in the game (+19), which the Greeks managed to reduce to 11 by halftime.

But the game would prove tough to win. Panathinaikos started to play very aggressively after halftime and the third quarter ended with Barça just eight points clear (51-43). During the fourth quarter Panathinaikos got within six points of the home team but the 7,585 Barça fans urged their team on to victory. Navarro scored five points in a row (56-45) and the difference was wide enough for the fans to start celebrating the classification for the Final Four. The final scoreboard read 64-53 and Barça is through to the London Final Four.