Panathinaikos added yet another victory to its records, since it overcame Olympia Larissas 90-65, in day 10 of the Greek League at the indoor arena of Neapoli.
A good second quarter was the factor that paced Panathinaikos to a safety gap in the encounter. It started-out hyped, flew ahead by 7 (4-11, 3’45’’), but Olympia stayed in the game, put in the extra effort, as it does in every game and tied at 17-17 (8’25’’). Zeljko Obradovic’s voice had already been heard loud and clear in the stadium, something of a wake-up call for the players who realized that more attention and focus would make their lives much easier inside court lines. The first period found the score at 17-23 to lead into a second quarter featuring the “Greens” leaping vertically to a much improved appearance. During this period of time the respective score becomes 10-25, half-time score 27-48 after an impressive 16-to-0 run for Panathinaikos (from 24-30 at 13’10 until 24-46 at 18’25’’). Numbers did not lie since they bared witness to Panathinaikos’ dynamic presence in the second quarter: Rebounds 5-to-8 in the first ten minutes, 8-to-14 in the second, one steal at first for Panathinaikos but then 6 after, 4 of these with Nikos Hatzivrettas’ name on them, 71% in threes (5/7) and 75% in two-pointers (12/16) whilst the hosts stats were 36% (4/11) and 40% (4/10) in the according categories, seeing that they found themselves trapped in their visitors’ asphyxiating pressure in defense. Difference had peaked at 18’25’’ behind a basket by Kostas Tsartsaris that jogged the score to 24-46 (+22) and then Panathinaikos decided to up the ante in the beginning of part 2 of the game, stretching the gap to +23 (27-50, 21’).
Olympia set sail for a come-back and enforced its own mini streak 8-0 getting the score to 35-50 (23’), only to trim its trail even further (48-57,28’) with a new run (7-0 from 41-57 at 26’30’’), Pekovic for the visitors accumulated 4 personal fouls at minute 28 in the game. Five good shots from the line by Hatzivrettas, Diamantidis and Perperoglou brought the score to order (48-62), result that drew curtains in quarter 3 and led to a 4th one that found Panathinaikos expanding the margin back to its +20 mode, inputting a feisty character and playing mainly hard on “D”. More precise connections in offense pushed the score to 50-71 (33’), Obradovic decided to throw Dusan Kecman into battle (32’) and reemerge Sarunas Jasikevicius from pine-time a minute later, score reaching 50-75 (34’). In the last three minutes of the game coach Obradovic made use of Sakota and Verginis seeing that the gap had been boosted to +28 (56-84, 26’). Final score-board reading was 65-90.
Referees: Mastraftsis-Tavoulareas-Tanatzis
Quarters: 17-23, 27-48, 28-62, 65-90
Olympia Larissas (Bartzokas): Castle 3, King 22, Schultze 10, Sigounas 7, Kurtovic, Giannoulakos, Batis 8, Arigbabu 2, Kolokas 2, Karapostolou, Papaioakim 11
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman, Perperoglou 7, Batiste 20 (5rbs), Fotsis 3, Hatzivrettas 10 (3as, 4stl), Nicholas 13, Tsartsaris 15, Diamantidis 7, Pekovic 3, Sakota, Verginis, Jasikevicius 12
*Absent from official line-up was Giorgi Shermadini whilst Vassilis Spanoulis did not take the trip to Larissa. He remained in Athens, where he undergoes treatment after his ankle-sprain in the game against Barcelona last Thursday.
Quotes:
Zeljko Obradovic referred to problems that Panathinaikos came up against during its preparation period and congratulated his players for their willingness in the encounter: “It was a hard week for us; we had four players in four days falling into the same injury (Spanoulis, Hatzivrettas, Fotsis and Pekovic) whilst Diamantidis came up with a fever the afternoon of the game against Barcelona and so did Perperoglou, so we didn’t really train to prepare for today’s game. Nevertheless everyone was more than willing to help the team and this is something very positive. Exactly because we were up against a team that has substantial guidance and orientation was it so important for us to play seriously and concentrated from the very first until the very last second. I am very pleased about this, our focus on the game, if one disregards a few dry spells. In these periods the fact that Olympia is a team that doesn’t give up helped and that is why it was the better team in the beginning of the second part. It was a nice game. Congratulations to the players and to Olympia to which we wish a good road through the Greek League”.
Giorgos Bartzokas, coach of Olympia Larissas, stressed: “We tried to keep it real on the court based on our potential and that of our opponent. We tried to take advantage of our rivals’ week spots as they did of ours. Our week spots are sufficiently more than Panathinaikos and the way the score turned out is a more than realistic fact. I have no complaints for my players; we are also on a two-game week basis at this moment in time, having little time to rest. Also Karapostolou and Belser are trying to adapt to the team.
I believe that we will keep getting better. Congratulations to Panathinaikos for its victory and good luck for the following games”.
Drew Nicholas stated: “It was a good game, but not what we wanted 100%, since again we had a few dry periods. In basketball a 20 point lead means nothing. Anything can happen. When we lost our concentration Olympia crept up to 9 points, but luckily enough we returned to the game as we should have and won. Coach had instructed us that we would get to clean shots, so even though I missed my first bucket, I continued to fire; so did my teammates. Losing to Barcelona was not easy to face, we are certainly influenced by it but there is room for improvement and that is why we work every day; to become better”.
Sotiris Karapostolou, Olympia player stated: “We knew it would be a hard game but every time you step on the court you try to win every game. We tried for the best possible. Panathinaikos is one of the best teams in Greece and Europe. It exploited our every mistake in the best possible way and ran the open field to easy baskets. We had good periods but when up against Panathinaikos you owe it to be focused for all 40 minutes and give your all in both frontcourt and backcourt. I would like to wish Panathinaikos all the best for the rest of its Greek and European games”.
