A good second half was all Panathinaikos needed to nail a home win against Ilisiakos and with a measurable edge at that. The greens picked up the pace, reacted in better form in backcourt and downed their opponent in the indoor stadium of Ilisia, 94-62.
Turnovers were the main element that deprived Panathinaikos a good game opening. 13 in total committed in the first half were over the limit and made it impossible to establish any kind of pace or even get to create and hang on to even the slightest lead in the clash, across from a feisty Ilisiakos that came up aggressive behind leading offender Vonteego Cummings. Team went neck in neck all through the entire first half. The clover never got to more than 5 points a distance in quarter 1 (14-19, 8’35’’), trailed at 12’10’’ (23-22), picked up the slack back up to +6 (25-31 at 14’10’’ and 31-37 at 18’35’’), before teams headed towards the locker rooms at 32-39, Panathinaikos trying to exploit any given opportunity to run the open field and get to the easy basket.
Guest team went for an improved image game recommencing. Drew Nicholas showed the way, defense paid off setting the tone as the clover swooshed to a sweet +18 cushion (36-54, 26’45’’) praise to a partial 4-17 run and an Ilisiakos scoring draught from 21’ up to 27’15’’. Third quarter concluded at 43-61, Panathinaikos ball game essentially on the floor. All that remained to be determined in the final quarter was the price of the gap, as coach Obradovic cleared off the bench and the final buzzer found the score board reading 62-94, game score.
Referees: Anastopoulos, Bitis, Tsounas
Quarters: 18-20, 32-39, 43-61, 62-94
Ilisiakos (Koufos): Carter 4, Karidas 7, Cummings 11, Papanikolaou 10, Chatzis 5, Athanasoulas 3, Sioutis 2, Vidalis 3, Galiotos, Ioannou 10, Kasselakis 7
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 11, Spanoulis 4, Perperoglou 5, Batiste 12, Fostis 6, Nicholas 8, Tsartsaris 5, Pekovic 14, Calathes 11, Verginis 3, Sheramdini 11, Jasikeviicus 4
*Absent from the official line up were Dimitris Diamantidis and Yorgos Bogris.
*Thanasis Yannakopoulos was present at the game.
*Antonis Fotsis, Stratos Perperoglou and Yorgos Bogris all have played for Ilisiakos in the past. All three of them were honored by their ex team.
