Panathinaikos was on a bad day, nevertheless it managed to beat AEL 1964 GS by 83-78, coach Obradovic trying out certain formations, attempting to give time off to players only to find himself in the luxurious position of gaining yet another 2 points down the stretch of the Greek League.
The “clover” found it quite hard to pace itself after tip off, coming up against a feisty opponent, who played freely, since it had no stress about the game’s final outcome, in view of its rival’s galore. From minute 1 Zeljko Obradovic tried through substitutions to seek out the appropriate combination that would offer results on the floor. His team started off with a 4-0 run, a situation easy to be answered to immediately, topped by an opposing 5-0 streak for the hosts.
The “Greens” were down by 3 (7-4, 2’45’’) and further on by 2 (15-13, 7’10’’) with the hosts acting behind attempts from Francis and Alijevas on their first appearance. The first quarter ended at 17-20, Panathinaikos rising up to expectations, becoming more effective in defense after Nikos Hatzivrettas’ entrance, player who provided his team with solutions at both ends of the court (7 points in the first half of the game, 1/1 two-pointers, 1/1 threes, 2/2 free shots). Shortly before the break the “clover” managed to get away by 7 (23-30 at 15’25’’, 25-32 at 17’), half-time buzzer finding the score at 33-37 after two back-to-back guarded triples unleashed by Papanikolaou and Francis. Strangely enough Panathinaikos’ sore spot was miss from two-point range, a category which usually is one of its strong points, presenting the scarce 9-out of-19 shots(47%), whilst its according stats in three-pointers was 4-out of-11 (36%).
Panathinaikos was more itself in the third quarter, capitalizing on good defense and improving offense, led mainly by continuous threes sank by Sarunas Jasikevicius, difference rising to +12 (42-54 at 24’45’’ and 45-57 at 25’15’’). Francis’ 4th personal foul committed at 27’30’’ was succeeded by Mike Batiste’s 4th one at 29’10’’, third period concluding at 55-65. Fourth quarter opening though was owned entirely by the home-team that exploited its opponent’s every misconduct and reduced its trail down to 5 points (60-65, 31’45’’). A technical foul charged by Christodoulou due to protesting gave the opportunity to AEL to creep up to a one-point distance (66-67, 33’40’’) thanks to an offensive rebound and a bucket by Nestoras Kommatos, who in the next defense raised his personal fouls to 4. Six points shared amongst Jasikevicius and Perperoglou gave another breather to Panathinaikos (66-73, 35’). A few minutes later Nikola Pekovic joined the “4-personal-committed-foul” group as did Labropoulos for “opposing counsel” that nevertheless denied to give up on the game and brought it down to the wire gaining on its guests to a 2 point margin (73-75, 37’).
Antonis Fotsis was the guy who undertook the dirty business in the next plays, sending the message across loud and clear with a magnificent stop on one end and very valuable two-point hoop on the other thanks to a clever pump and drive (76-79, 37’25’’). Kommatos reduced to 76-79 with 2’15’’ left on the clock, Panathinaikos making it 78-83, final game score. Pekovic and Jasikevicius had 22 and 20 points respectively and were the winning team’s first scorers. Referees: Christodoulou – Papapetrou – Xenikakis
Quarters: 17-20, 33-37, 55-65, 78-83
AEL Larissas (Alexandris): Zaras 2, Alijevas 10, Apostolidis 4, Papanikolaou 5, Labropoulos 15, Tsairelis, Karavanas, Lappas 4, Francis 22, Brozos 5, Kommatos 11
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman 3, Spanoulis 2, Perperoglou 10, Batiste 5, Fotsis 11, Hatzivrettas 7, Nicholas, Diamantidis 3, Pekovic 22, Sakota, Jasikevicius 20
*The players who did not make the trip to Larissa were Kostas Tsartsaris who is recuperating from an ankle sprain and Fragiskos Alvertis plus Giorgi Shermadini.
* Panathinaikos will be preparing for its encounter with Malaga from Monday the 2nd of February. It will travel on the next day (Tuesday) to the Spanish city where on Wednesday (February 4th) it will face Unicaja.
Press Conference
Zeljko Obradovic: “It was a good game. AEL played a very sensible game. It continued its good appearances that it has been committing lately, being defeated at the very end, as happened with Olympia, AEK and Aris. Congratulations for its presentation. We knew we were in for a difficult game it is actually something we had noted in the pregame analysis, exactly because AEL has fought at every game it has given in the second round. And we won simply because at the most crucial point of the game we played with more concentration”.
Vagelis Alexandris (coach AEL): “Luck this year is not on our side. And this is something to be said, not only about today’s game. Today we had an important absence, that of Mejia, a player who could have provided us with more energy and an extra edge. I do not dwell on fait’s patterns. I have learned in my life to respect both coaches and teams. Panathinaikos’ value is no secret. The other results did not help us either that is why I stated that we are on a jinx streak. I and my team believe that we can upset this situation. And we will continue to thrive as long as there is hope. I wish Panathinaikos good luck, because it is a team that deserves it, not only because it is a substantial team in the Greek League, but also because it has a leading role in Europe too and at less prosperous times, it was a club that kept basketball up to par”.
Vassilis Spanoulis: “It was yet another game from which we needed to derive victory. We have no margin to err. We did not play well. We should be more motivated and keep more focused on games like this. Our coaches had pointed it out beforehand: We should be driven in all encounters as if we were playing against Partizan. This is something we did not at any point achieve thus things played out the way they did. We should bear in mind that a jersey alone is not enough to take the win; all games are played and won on court thanks to great effort. We hold on to the positive result and proceed since ahead awaits a very important game in Spain against Malaga. We must get efficiently and sufficiently prepared, we really long for victory and we will try to be as prompt and ready as possible to fight for it”.
Torin Francis (player AEL): “We played wholeheartedly today. We collaborated in offence, played aggressively in defense. Certain turnovers we committed were the factor between winning and losing. It is not strange for us to have committed them, we try to learn from our mistakes and there is still time to achieve something better. Having so many close-call loses has kept as committed to each game. We know we have it in us to succeed. We proceed with our head high. We are keeping it together for the next game; for exactly that. Even if our standing record shows otherwise, we are still trying and we will have another chance to prove what a good team we actually are”.
