Panathinaikos edged PAOK 89-83 at OAKA for the 1st Basket League OPAP semifinal. The two teams will meet again on Thursday the 15th of May at 19.30 at OAKA for the 2nd semifinal.
PAOK was the team to take the lead first. Tsairelis, Charalampidis and Bogris set the pace to lead to +10 (9-19, 5'20'') and later on to +13 (18-31, 9'10''). Panathinaikos found itself chasing PAOK being not as sharp in shooting, while in rebounding the two teams balanced. Diamantidis and Mavrokefalidis were the two players who took over for the Greens trying to narrow the gap between the two teams. The lead dropped to 4 points (31-35, 12'45''), but PAOK got to 31-40 (14'10'') and later on to 35-44 (17'30''). Panathinaikos returned to the game cutting the lead again to 4 points (45-49) at the half time.
Greens tied the game behind 5 points from Jonas Maciulis and 3 from James Gist (53-53, 22'), Roko Leni Ukic gave them the lead, while Stephane Lasme led to +4 (57-53, 22'48''). The clover led by 5 (61-56, 25'25''), but PAOK came back with George Bogris giving back the lead to his team with four consecutive points (61-62, 27'10''). The led also to +3 963-66, 29'10''), before the end of the third period (65-66).
The game was interesting till the last second. PAOK led by 4 (79-74 33'40''), Panathinaikos used a partial 6-0 to make it 76-74 (35') and later 79-76 (33'40'') behind a shot behind the arc by Jonas Maciulis. The game was tied again (79-79 37'45'', 81-81 38'20''). The victory was sealed by Antonis Fotsis scoring 4 points and the Loukas Mavrokefalidis who left the game with 32 points, 10 rebounds, 11 fouls won and 47 in ranking.
Referees: Christodoulou, Manos, Mitsopoulos
Quarters: 21-31, 45-49, 65-66, 89-83
Panathinaikos (Alvertis): Bramos, Curry, Fotsis 9, Ukic 7, Lasme 6, Mavrokefalidis 32 (10reb), Diamantidis 17 (5r, 6a), Gist 10, Pappas, Maciulis 8, Wright
PAOK (Markopoulos): Payne 13, Cooper 15, Charalampidis 14, Tsohlas 2, Vucicevic, Tsairelis 14, Dedas, Margaritis 3, Kalles, Bogris 16 (9r, 4a), Kaselakis 6, Liapis
