By: Jay Yeomans

Published: December 13, 2019

Jimmer Fredette delivered his best shooting night of the EuroLeague season but it wasn’t enough as FC Barcelona handed the Greens a 98-86 defeat on Friday.

Fredette paced Panathinaikos in the road setback with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field, including 2-for-4 from beyond the arc and 3-for-3 from the foul line. He added three assists, a season-best three steals and a rebound in 28:02 on the floor.

After connecting on three free throws in the first quarter, Fredette went to work from the floor in the second. He started it off with a transition three in the left corner before breaking down the defense off the dribble and hitting a tough fadeaway over Nikola Mirotic and Brandon Davies to finish the first half with eight points.

He was back at it early in the third with a tough floater off the dribble followed by a three from the right-wing to cut the deficit to five. He added two more baskets to finish with nine points in the quarter to help keep Panathinaikos in the game with a very talented Spanish squad.

Fredette closed out his scoring late in the fourth with a contested shot at the rim.

The Eurohoops TV YouTube Channel shared highlights of most of Fredette’s baskets.

Mirotic led the way for Barcelona with 23 points on 7-for-13 shooting from the floor and 7-for-7 at the foul line while Malcolm Delaney registered 17 points on the strength of 5-for-8 shooting from 3-point land.

As for Brandon Davies, he had a really nice showing with 12 points, six rebounds, two assists, and a steal in 22:55 off the bench.

One of his biggest plays of the night came on the offensive glass where he collected a rebound before throwing down a huge dunk.

The EuroLeague Twitter account shared a highlight of the play.

Four other players scoring in double figures for Panathinaikos in the loss paced by Nick Calathes who managed 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting while handing out a game-high 13 assists.

Deshaun Thomas added 12 points while Tyrese Rice and Ioannis Papapetrou chipped in with 10 points apiece as the Greens dropped to 8-5.

Through 12 EuroLeague games, Fredette is 12th in the league in scoring, averaging 13.9 points on 50.8 percent shooting from inside the arc, 41.5 percent from 3-point range and 95.1 percent from the free-throw line. He also contributes 2.3 assists and 1.8 rebounds in 21:35.

Thoughts on the game

Jimmer picked his spots to attack and that translated to his best shooting night against Europe’s toughest competition. The unfortunate part is that such a quality performance came in a losing effort.

As for the matchup between the former BYU teammates, it was just great to see the two legends back on the court together again and playing at such a high level. It was also fun to see what they did after the game as they exchanged jerseys.

Davies took to Instagram to share a photo of the moment.

Inside the numbers

The 19-point effort was his third-highest scoring game in EuroLeague but easily his best shooting night. It was also the 10th time in 12 games where he reached double figures.

After knocking down all three of his free-throw attempts, Fredette is now 39-for-41 at the stripe, good for second in EuroLeague.

Up next

Panathinaikos heads back to Greek League play on Sunday where it puts its undefeated record at stake against Peristeri who sits in a tie for second place at 7-3.