A pick at the final; Panathinaikos overcame Maroussi in over time by 76-72 at the indoor stadium of St. Thomas and now awaits its opponent in the final of the tournament that will be provided from the game between Olympiakos and Panionios (25/01/09, 5pm, SEF arena). Thanks to Vassilis Spanoulis in the cock-pit, Perperoglou chipping in 18 points and great team-defence, inputting a tremendous effort for all 45 minutes game-time it will be punctual on its date with yet another final, the Greek Cup final nevertheless that shall take place on the 21st of February.
Two whole minutes without score was the opening of the game, though Maroussi needed less time (1’40’’) to mount to a quick 10-0 behind a free shot from Loukas Mavrokefaldis, two three-pointers provided by Jarod Stevenson and one by Kostas Haralampidis, snatching an early lead from its guest. In the same period of time Panathinaikos that presented Diamantidis, Jasikevicius, Kecman, Fotsis and Pekovic at tip-off had 0/4 two-pointers and 0/2 triples with rebound battle at 7-to- 2 in favour of the home team. It was a start-off quite far from what Obradovic and gang had hoped for.
Perperoglou stepping-in
First renovations were made by Perperoglou in-Kecman out to match-up properly Stevenson and a little later Glyniadakis took Mavroidis’ place to better mark Pekovic, score reaching 11-6 (4’50’’). Two charity shots from Diamantidis allowed the “clover” to sneak up even closer (11-8, 5’15’’), only for Perperoglou to cut the trail down to two (13-11, 6’ ), same guy tie-maker (14-14, 6’40’’), Jasikevicius having been switched for Hatzivrettas, the player who gave the “Greens” the lead for the first time in the encounter (14-16, 7’15’’), helping his team get away even further (14-17, 8’ ) and praise to Hatzivrettas presence even more to 14-19 (8’35’’). An end to Panathinaikos 8-0 run was given by Glyniadakis and Keys, shortly before the epilogue in the first quarter was written by Mike Batiste (18-21). Rebounds had evened out by now (10-to-8), the “Greens” closing the quarter with a perfect zero in turnovers.
Panathinaikos seemed to be in control of the game, managed to maintain even the smallest advantage, enforcing a feisty defence, Maroussi though regaining the encounter’s reigns at 16’40’’after a triple attempt of its players with final executor Glyniadakis (27-26, 16’40’’). Top spot changed hands many a times in the next few minutes, mainly from behind the line, to bring-up the guests on top with a 4 point edge thanks to Keys (32-29, 18’40’’). Fotsis answered unleashing a triple, but was replied to by Stevenson from down town to close the second quarter (36-32). Respective stats: 20-14 rebounds, 6-1 turnovers, 6/10 triples for Maroussi and for Panthinaikos… 2/10!
Keys embarked on dialling long distance twice and gave a 9 point advantage to Maroussi (43-34, 23’15’’), Obradovic having started the quarter investing on Diamantidis, Nicholas, Perperoglou, Fotsis and Batiste, soon to replace Nicholas with Jasikevicius, since although he started off playing great “D”, Nicholas went on to miss three free shots, a triple, to commit a turnover whilst also getting charged with an unsportsmanlike foul. And Maroussi did not stop at this. It flew ahead even further, all the way up to +11 (48-37, 26’15’’). The “Green” resist led to cutting the trail down to 48-43 (28’30’’), for the third quarter to end at 50-45.
Spanoulis stepping-up
The fourth quarter begun with a technical foul charged to Sarunas Jasikevicius, allowing Maroussi to get to +7 (52-45, 30’40’’), making the most only out of the two free shots. A three-point-play offered by Spanoulis compressed the distance from the opponent down to 4 points (54-50, 32’), same culprit gaining on the rival even more to two points right after (54-52, 32’25’’) only to get to the lean 1 point trail in the next play making use out of 1-ou of-2 shots from the line (54-53, 33’), the same time that Nikos Pitsilkas charged both benches with a respective technical foul. The guard from Larissa did not take his foot of the exhilarator, jogged the score to 56-55, joined by Nicholas, Jasikevicius, Fotsis and Pekovic on court. Obradovic made some substitutions leaving Spanoulis and Fotsis on the floor, adding Perperoglou, Diamantidis and Batiste to the recipe, score currently at 58-57 (36’). It was the latter that gave the lead to the “clover” (58-59, 37’25’’). Mavrokefalidis pulled a jumper to make the score 60-59 (37’45’’), Spanoulis once more being the go-to-guy for the “Greens”, evening things out to 61-61 (38’30’’), burying two charity shots to make 63-63, since Kaimakoglou had given the lead to Maroussi in the previous play following one of his teammates missed attempts, something that failed to happen after the new tie since Stevenson missed next offense. Teams went into O.T. with the last mentioned score.
Vspan sent Panathinaikos to the leading position, popping a nothing-but-net trifecta from an adjacent to the baseline position (67-70, 43’20’’) and from that minute further Panathinaikos never looked back score-wise, mounting even to a +7 advantage (67-74, 39’20’’), final buzzer featuring the score at 72-76.
Referees: Pitsilkas – Gondas - Karakatsounis
Quarters: 18-21, 36-32, 50-45, 63-63, 72-76 (OT)
Maroussi (Markopoulos): Stevenson 9, Keys 13, Haralampidis 7, Diamantopoulos 9, Huff 1, Stefanidis 2, Mavroidis 4, Mavrokefalidis 11, Calathes, Glyniadakis 6, Kaimakoglou 8
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman, Spanoulis 20, Perperoglou 18, Batiste 13, Fotsis 4, Hatzivrettas, Nicholas, Tsartsaris 3, Diamantidis 7, Pekovic 5, Jasikevicius 6
*Official line-up did not include Fragiskos Alvertis, Dimitris Verginis and Giorgi Shermadini.
