Panathinaikos reached the second win in the semi-final series of the Greek League play-offs by beating Aris in the “Alexandrio” arena and now is only one win away from qualification to the final round, win it will opt for on Saturday at OAKA.
Teams stepped on court taking turns in leading. Panathinaikos had defense problems, committed turnovers (it had accumulated 11 in the first half, as many as it had tallied in the entire duration of the first game at OAKA, cutting the sum down to 6 in the second half), but this did not apprehend it from pacing the game to its advantage. More mature choices in offence, improved collaborations in backcourt and total control over rebounding assisted it to find balance on court and even gain the superlative from 13’30’’ and onwards.
Aris was in the lead at this point (19-18) but a three that ripped the net unleashed by Sarunas Jasikevicius put the “Greens” on top (19-21) only to lead on to a 10-0 run to mount to a 9 point distance from their opponents (19-28, 16’15). The gap expanded even more and reached double digits praise to a three-point play by the greatly effective Antonis Fotsis (21-31, 16’50’’) seeing on to a first half closing with a 10 point cushion for the “clover” sealed by an exquisite rotating drive by the always impressive Spanoulis (26-36).
First half stats testified in favor of the guest team since rebounds were 18-13, assists 7-2 whilst field shots for visitors and hosts were 11/18 twos – 3/5 threes and 6/20 twos – 3/11 threes respectively. In addition the “clover” had locked down one of Aris’ arch offensive weapons, Nelson, who had only got to the basket twice in the entire first half.
Second half opening hosted Panathiniakos on a cozy +12 edge (26-38) behind hoops by Pekovic. Aris embarked on a come-back when Wright and Clark combined for back-to-back triples (36-41, 23’) only to see Panathinaikos climb back to +10 (36-46, 24’20’’). Keydren Clark became Aris’ go-to-guy in the succeeding moments, Wright chipping in 4 points to cut the trail down to two (46-48, 29’). Zeljko Obradovic’s players’ response was immediate Jasikevicius dialed long distance, whilst the dynamic duo of Batiste and Perperoglou dropped buckets to set the third quarter score at 46-55.
Vassilis Spanoulis marked the +11 margin, game recommencing (46-57). Aris went into a scoring draught from 28’ to 33’40’’ when Nelson finally added another basket to his initial two. Vspan was the culprit of the closing trifecta that fixed the final score at 53-66, the “Greens” not having been threatened by their opponents at all during the entire fourth quarter.
Referees: Pitsilkas – Koromilas - Afentoulidis
Quarters: 14-14, 26-36, 46-55, 53-66
Aris (Mazzon): Clark 21, Wright 12, Betts 5, Nelson 7, Argyropoulos, Iliadis, Gavel, Agadakos, Barlos 2, Tsaldaris 6
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman 3, Spanoulis 12 (4as, 6df), Perperoglou 2, Batiste 10 (10rbs), Fotsis 7 (1/1fs, 3/3twos, 4rbs, 3as, 2stl), Hatzivrettas, Nicholas 7, Tsartsaris 3, Pekovic 8, Jasikevicius 14
*Dimitris Diamantidis (lower abdomen pain) was absent for the second Panathinaikos visit to the “Alexandrio” this season. He was also absent from the game in the regular season.
*In the first encounter for the semi-final play-offs Panathinaikos overcame Aris by 84-80. The third encounter will take place on Saturday (16/05) at 18:00h (GT) at the OAKA arena.
