Panathinaikos, Bayern win titles in Greece, Germany

Carsen Edwards and Kostas Sloukas each scored 29 points, leading their respective teams to tittle-clinching victories on Friday night.

The Greens overcome 0-2, win title

The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens has completed its dream season, beating arch-rival Olympiacos Piraeus 87-82 in Game 5 of their Greek League finals to win its first national championship in three years. This is also the Greens' 40th Greek League crown, and it has come after overcoming a 0-2 deficit in the series. On this night, the victory came behind Kostas Sloukas who scored 25 of his 29 points in the first half.

In this series decider, Olympiacos stormed out of the gates, with Kostas Papanikolaou hitting a pair of triples and Alec Peters nailing one to open 2-13 lead. But Panathinaikos used a 9-0 run fueled by Mathias Lessort to get the Greens back, then Sloukas entered the game with 2:18 left in the first quarter, and turned on the jets. Sloukas scored 20 of his team's next 26 points, including 16 of the first 17 in the second quarter as Panathinaikos opened a 37-33 lead. Sloukas's 5 more points helped the hosts put together another run and open an 11-point margin, before going into halftime up 48-39 and Sloukas with 25 points on 9-for-10 shooting on his tally.

However, the Reds wasted no time to get back into the game after the break with Papanikolaou and Peters scoring the first 7 points, then Nikola Milutinov adding 6 of his own for Olympiacos to take a 54-56 lead with 4 minutes left in the quarter. But Jerian Grant got the Greens going, and scored 7 points the rest of the third quarter as Panathinaikos took 65-64 lead into the fourth. The hosts stepped up defensively, while triples from Juancho Hernangomez and Kendrick Nunn opened 75-66 margin midway through the fourth. Olympiacos made one last push, Nigel Williams-Goss scored 5 points to help cut it to 77-71, Peters nailed a triple, followed by one from Papanikolaou that made it 81-78 with 1:23 left, before Walkup stole the ball from Nunn at mid-court. A layup from McKissic cut it to 81-80 in the final minute, and after another defensive stand, Olympiacos had a possession to grab the lead. However, Williams-Goss missed a short jumper and Panathinaikos made enough free throws in the final seconds to prevail.

Grant had 15 points in a victory, Nunn 13 and Lessort 11. For Olympiacos, Peters netted 21 points, Papanikolaou 18 and Milutinov had 17 points plus 12 rebounds.

Bayern climbs to the German league throne

FC Bayern Munich is the German League champion for the first time since 2019, after using a 2-18 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to defeat ALBA Berlin 82-88 in Game 4 of their best-of-five playoff final series. Friday's win, led by a red-hot Carsen Edwards, clinched Bayern its sixth German League title, and fourth since 2014.

In Game 4, Bayern took the lead for good with a 0-7 run, capped by a three-pointer from Edwards, opening a 48-54 lead early in the third quarter. Back-to-back-to-back threes from Edwards during a 0-11 run in the final 4 and a half minutes of the third quarter had Bayern up 52-65 going into the fourth, and the visitors extended the margin to 54-72 with 6:30 left in the game.

ALBA melted the deficit in the fourth quarter, and even got within 82-84 with 11 seconds to go, but Bayern held on as Edwards finished with 29 points on 7-for-10 three-point shooting.

Leandro Bolmaro and Devin Booker each scored 10, and Booker also had 9 assists, in Bayern's title-clinching victory. Sterling Brown finished with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists for ALBA, while Yanni Wetzel scored 11 in defeat.