It was quite an easy afternoon for Panathinaikos on a road game against Egaleo, since it prevailed by 81-69, in day 8 of the Greek League, highlight of the encounter being Giorgi Shermadini’s first appearance on the court.
Panathinaikos’ law was enforced from minute 1 in the game. Coach Obradovic picked Spanoulis-Hatzivrettas-Sakota-Batiste-Tsartsaris as his starters and made first substitution at minute 4 replacing Dusan Sakota with Kecman. The “Greens” put the pedal to the metal, building on “D” and capitalizing on its good play-out to get to easy baskets in offence. Set-game suited them also, since they circulated the ball superbly until the correct solution presented itself. Hatzivrettas and Spanoulis ruled both ends of the court in the first quarter by dropping combined 15-out of-29 Panathinaikos points (18-29 final first quarter score) when at the same time the players that the pair of them had been assigned to guard had only chipped in two points for Egaleo, points that came from the line.
Foundations were well established and come first minutes of second quarter the gap started to widen even further, peeking to its highest figure in this period of time all the way up to 27-50 (19’), Egaleo thriving to find a way to put a stop on Pekovic who half way through the encounter tallied 8 points of his own. Half time found the score at 33-52 for Panathinaikos. Talking of numbers, worthy to be mentioned are the following stats: The guests attacked mostly with two-pointers having 19-out of-25, lay low on triples (3-out of-5) and had only two turnovers across from their hosting team’s respective 9.
The third quarter did not bring about a different tune. The distance between the two teams was not only obvious on the score- board; it was more than apparent on the floor also. All interest in the game revolved around Giorgi Shermadini’s first-time presence in action. Obradovic ordered a switch at 27’40’’, the Georgian player stepped on the court at 28’06’’, only to make his teammates bring down the house with their applauding and cheering-on since at 29’30 he superiorly dunked the ball and made the entire Panathinaikos’ bench literary jump into the air. Kallinikidis made two charity shots and the third quarter ended at 57-76.
Egaleo gave it its best shot in the fourth quarter opting to amount to a last minute come-back. It gradually reduced its trail, made a 9-to-0 run and the score from 61-81 (31’40’’) fluctuated to 69-81 (33’30’’), last attempt a basket from Gabrans. Obradovic threw both Diamantidis and Spanoulis for the first time in the game. Nikou on the other hand greeted Paterson to the bench who got fouled-out at 34’. Spanoulis boosted the lead’s confidence to a +16 velocity (69-85, 35’30’’) and Dimitris Verginis stepped on the court, becoming Panathinaikos’ player number 12 in the encounter. Victory was a matter of procedure down the stretch, score resting at 81-96 sealed by a triple-buzzer beater connected on by Nikos Hatzivrettas.
The game did not feature Sarunas Jasikevicius and Stratos Perperoglou who are experiencing waste annoyances.
Referees: Koromilas – Goumas – Mitsopoulos
Quarters: 18-29, 33-52, 57-76, 81-96
Egaleo (Nikou): Gabrans 13, Taylor 4, Soulis 15, Patterson 11, McGrath 11, Magounis, Angelopoulos N. 3, Bracey 5, Kallinikidis 13, Gizogiannis 6
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman 5, Spanoulis 15, Batiste 9, Fotsis 8, Hatzivrettas 14, Nicholas 9, Tsartsaris 6, Diamantidis 7, Pekovic 13, Sakota 6, Shermadini 4, Verginis
