Panathinaikos nailed an easy game, with a large range edge on the road against Trikala 2000, score resting at 93-69 even though it was missing Diamantidis and Pekovic’ services, for day 18 in the Greek League. The home-team, that strives to remain in the category and that too was short by a very important roster element, Avery, kept its opponent honest as much as possible, especially in part 1, stamina running out in the second half of the game alongside Panathinaikos clearly being more resourceful in its choices, not leaving any room for resist to the underdog.
Trikala led first by 5-3 at 2’, input an immediate response from 7-15 (8’), cutting its trail down to 2 (17-19 at 7’50’’), as happened in the second quarter also when it reduced the gap down to 6 (33-39 at 18’40’’), succeeding Panathinaikos’ 13 point advantage accumulation (26-39 at 16’). The break found the margin in double digits for the guests (36-46), Sarunas Jasikevicius shooting hoops worth 13 points in 10 minutes of action before intermission, behind 2-out of-3 twos, 3-out of-4 threes stats, Vassilis Spanoulis being the game organizer tallying 4 perfect passes by now.
Change of scenery game recommencing, prevalence opting clearly towards the “Greens” who decided to take matters in their own hands until the end of the game. Their great shot validation but mostly their stifling defense allowed them to distance themselves from Vangelis Angelou’s team, breaching the +20 point barrier shortly after 26’(42-63) and furthermore that of the +30 point at 36’25’’ (57-88), Zeljko Obradovic being represented on court at this period of time by Verginis-Hatzivrettas-Sakota and Shermadini. Victory was sealed by the final score 69-93 and Panathinaikos proceeds to face Panellinios on Wednesday (18/2, 3.45pm, ANT1 channel) at the OAKA arena.
Referees: Piloidis, Goumas, Mitsopoulos
Quarters: 19-28, 36-46, 49-73, 69-93
Trikala 2000 (Angelou): Lepeniotis 4, Pettas 3, Nikolaidis 5, Katsares, Bogdanos 5, Kaklamanos 8, Jango 4, Djikanovic 15, Mutombo 8, Dickel 8
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman, Spanoulis 9(4as), Perperoglou 15, Batiste 18, Fotsis 5(9rbs), Hatzivrettas 2, Nicholas 12, Tsartsaris 6, Shermadini 9, Verginis 2, Jasikevicius 15, Sakota
*Dimitris Diamantidis and Nikola Pekovic did not make the trip up to Trikala 2000. On the starting line-up Dimitris Verginis and Giorgi Shermadini were included. Trikala were missing Avery.
*One of the memorable points of the encounter was Giorgi Shermadini competing in the green jersey for the second time ever in the Greek league (his premiere was on a road game against Egaleo). The Georgian center in only 6’41’’ competing time managed to sum up 9 points behind 5-out of-5 free-shots and 2-out of-3 twos, 4 rebounds and 3 drawn fouls including a notorious dunk, amongst the encounter’s high-lights.
* Zeljko Obradovic, Dimitris Itoudis, Nikos Hatzivrettas and Dimitris Verginis visited the junior cadets of Eolos in Trikala. The coach of Panathinaikos stated: “Basketball is a great thing to be involved in. Sports help in forming character”.
Quotes
Zeljko Obradovic (Panathinaikos): “It was a really interesting game. When we were preparing for the encounter against Trikala we knew it is a team with ever switching defenses, something we saw happen in the first half. The important thing for us is that we kept up with our good appearance at both ends of the court across from a team that lately has been playing unquestionably better but was missing one of its key players, Avery. It is very important that today the experienced players kept it together and that the younger guys got some playing time under their skin. I am very satisfied from Verginis and Shermadini who got to play today and who help out a lot in practices. I would like to repeat that it was a very intriguing game with an opponent who stood its ground until the end. The atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic. Congratulations to our players but also to our fans, it was great having them here with us. Good luck next for Trikala in the Greek League.
About the Greek Cup Final Obradovic stated: “Before the Cup Final we have a game against Panellinios and our concerns are towards this encounter”.
Vangelis Angelou (Trikala): “Competing against Panathinaikos either as a player either as a coach is always challenging. It is fortunate that you get to compete against such a team and even more fortunate that you force it to input an effort when it faces you. There is no greater gift than playing against a focused Panathinaikos. We tried to keep up with an open game and make clear decisions. Panathinaikos’ quality was unarguably finer and did not fuss long to break our disadvantages open wide. What I noted for my players was that they should not see this game as individuals but as a team, otherwise they will not be able to learn from Panathinaikos’ team-work, a fact abundantly apparent in every area of its game. We would like to thank Panathinaikos for respecting us. I told my players that from now on whoever wants to play as a team and give his all is fine by me, whoever sees it as a personal matter will meet an army of me. Up to now this is what we focused on, team-work and it’s the way I plan to go down the stretch to the end of the League because for me, to be able to compete in the Greek League either as player or coach is an honor and whoever doesn’t get it will have to do with me”.
Stratos Perperoglou (Panathinaikos): “We have very important games ahead, we did not want to underestimate Trikala, because it is a team that is fighting to remain in the League and this alone makes it dangerous. Now we must get prepared for the next games. We are in great form both mentally and competitively, we have found rhythm and we must remain at the same level”.
Dimitris Verginis (Panathinaikos): Congratulations for the team of Trikala who came up great especially in the first half and managed to maintain its trail in relatively small figures. We gave all we had both in defense and offense all the way to the end of the encounter thus we got to an easy victory. The last month we have come to the final stretch and we have really hard games ahead. We examine every game individually and we prepare towards victory”.
Nikos Katsares (Trikala): “We knew we were up against a big team like Panathinaikos. It was something of a festivity/game for us. From now on we look forward and plan to fight until the end for the best”.
