By: Jay Yeomans

Published: September 28, 2019

Jimmer Fredette made his much-anticipated Greek League debut, and the former BYU star didn’t disappoint as Panathinaikos delivered an 89-68 win on the road over AEK on Saturday.

Despite not putting up the kind of numbers he did in China, Fredette showed off his remarkable shooting stroke in an efficient scoring day playing alongside a star-studded team who have big goals.

In the win, Fredette finished second on the team in scoring with 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field, including a 60-percent clip from 3-point land. He added a pair of rebounds and an assist in 22:07 on the floor.

Fredette opened up the scoring for Panathinaikos on an out-of-bounds play as he raced to the right corner before knocking down the triple. His second 3-pointer of the night came late in the second quarter thanks to a slick pass from Tyrese Rice who found the deadly shooter open at the top of the arc.

Jimmer did the rest of his scoring in the fourth quarter, including a difficult runner from the foul line and another three.

The Vasilis P. YouTube Channel shared highlights from the game.

DeShaun Thomas led the way for the Greens in the win with 26 points on 9-for-11 shooting from the field and 5-for-5 from the foul line. Rice also had a strong performance with 11 points and seven assists off the bench while Jacob Wiley added 10 points and seven rebounds in limited action.

Nick Calathes chipped in with 10 assists, six rebounds, and three steals while Georgios Papagiannis had eight points and nine boards.

Kendrick Ray led the way for AEK with 18 points while former Kansas star Keith Langford managed 11 points, four rebounds, and two helpers.

Dimitrios Kaklamanakis added 11 points of his own while collecting a team-best nine rebounds.

Thoughts on the game

I know that the point totals for Jimmer aren’t something we are used to but the game in Greece is nothing like it is in China. Because of that, I don’t expect to see him go for 40 regularly but I do expect him to be very efficient on a team where he doesn’t have to carry nearly as much of the scoring load.

It is also important to point out that Greek League games and EuroLeague game will look different as well. EuroLeague is of higher quality and should give Jimmer more minutes to display his talents.

Up next

Fredette and the Greens open up EuroLeague play on Thursday, October third against Serbian squad, Crvena Zvezda before bouncing back into Greek League to face off with Lavrio on Saturday.