Tomic, Navarro lead Barcelona past Panathinaikos 70-60

Barcelona Regal led from start to finish in taking care of Panathinaikos Athens 60-70 Thursday at OAKA in the Greek capital to even the Turkish Airlines Euroleague series at 2-2 and force a decisive Game 5 in Spain next week. Scoring king Juan Carlos Navarro netted 11 of his game-high 17 points in the fourth quarter – including 3 three-pointers – as the visitors won by the largest margin of any game in the series. Ante Tomic added 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals and Marcelinho Huertas tallied 10 points, 6 boards and 6 assists to pace the winners. Mike Bramos led the hosts with 14 points on 4-of-8 three-point shooting, but the rest of the team shot a combined 1 for 15 from downtown. Sofoklis Schortsanitis added 13 points in 12 minutes, Stephane Lasme amassed 12 points and 12 rebounds and Jonas Maciulis scored 11 in defeat. The visitors scored the first 4 points of the game and led 10-20 through one quarter. Schortsanitis and co. rallied to within 4 at halftime and the hosts came within 2 early in the third quarter. However Tomic, Erazem Lorbek and Marcelinho led a 0-12 charge as the visitors extended the lead to 31-45 and eventually led by as many as 17. Threes by Maciulis and Bramos gave Panathinaikos hope at 52-60 with four minutes to go. However a Navarro three and tough Barcelona defense ended the Panathinaikos rally and made sure this series would go the distance.