Panathinaikos continued its winning streak in the Greek League, since in the OAKA arena, for game 5 it prevailed over Trikala 81-62, featuring 4 players tallying 11 points (Perperoglou, Batiste, Tsartsaris, Pekovic) and having given only 6’20’’ playing time to captain Dimitris Diamantidis. In an encounter that greeted Vassilis Spanoulis at his first official game of the season, who due to injury to the sole of his foot had been out of action since the second game in Olimpia Ljubljana’s tournament in Slovenia. Panathinaikos found it hard to get game and it was this factor that set restrictions to its gaining a respectable difference and maintain it also. Trikala got the lead at 2-4, at 2’25’’ into the game, found itself in the leading position once again at 9’20’’ (17-18), drawed at 21-21, 10’15 into the game, but at this point Panathinaikos embarked on a 10-to-0 stride up to 13’10’’ (31-21), by playing faster, but also by setting traps in defense the minute the ball crossed the middle line of the court. The gap was enhanced to +13 (44-31 at 18’50’’, 43-32 at 19’20’’), sending the teams to the locker rooms at 45-34, half time score.
When everyone was back in place, the “Greens” heaved the margin to +11 (47-36 at 21’15’’), Trikala crept up to get the gap to a +5 level (47-42 at 22’35’’), only to see Panathinaikos’ come-back to a satisfying +16 (60-44, 29’45’’), gaining solutions mainly from defense and enjoying baskets mostly from Batiste. Third quarter ended 60-47. Twice in the last three minutes of the quarter, Panathinaikos’ defense had led its opponent to a 24-second time violation. In the 4th quarter things started to settle. Three consecutive triples connected by Dusan Sakota after top notch ball circulation, brought on score 71-52 at 33’10’’. The gap broke the 20 point barrier for the first time in the game, thanks to two valid shots from the charity stripe by Spanoulis (73-52, 35’10’’) only to peek to its highest at +23 (77-54 at 37’20’’, 81-58 at 38’50), score resting finally at 81-62 in favor of Panathinaikos.
Referees: Koromilas – Manos – Poursanidis K.
Quarters: 21-19, 45-34, 60-47, 81-62
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman 4, Spanoulis 9, Perperoglou 11, Batiste 11, Fotsis 6, Hatzivrettas, Nicolas 3, Tsartsaris 11, Diamantidis, Pekovic 11, Sakota 9, Jasikevicius 6
Trikala 2000 (Christopoulos): Nikolaidis 17, Papachristos 6, Bogdanos 9, Massie 4, Djikanovic 6, Charismidis 6, Fountas, Tsoutsos 2, Avery 12
Absent from the team’s roster where Fragiskos Alvertis and Dimitris Verginis
