It was quite an adventurous evening the first semifinal of the Greek Cup took place. At the “Ivanofio” indoor stadium Panathinaikos edged home team Iraklis 80-64. The game went for a 35 minute interval commencing at minute 27, score at 39-57. The refs sent the order forward for the encounter to recommence, fans stands having been left vacant. Teams kept close at score during the entire first quarter which ended opposing councils in a tie (21-21). Iraklis came off triples, got buckets behind Lampropoulos but as Panathinaikos enforced top notch defense conditions switched on the floor. Long range was no longer an easy to get to option, pressure to the ball led to interceptions of its possession seeing on to easy hoops down the open field and the gap that started to form was prime time pay-back for all these efforts. The greens went for a partial 1-12 run (22-32) and stayed at it as they stepped away even further all the way up to +18 at intermission (29-47), clover edge peaking at 22’ (29-53, +24). Game interruption rendered both teams out of whack, re-entrance on court could not bring about any kind of quality competing granted conditions existing in the Ivanofio gym. Iraklis gave it its best shot, got game of long haul scoring, managed to cut the slack down to 11 points a trail (60-71), but was essentially all it could get round to as the game finally ended in a 64-80 standings fashion.
Referees: Anastopoulos, Karakatsounis, Stamatopoulos (Tsoulis)
Quarters: 21-21, 29-47, 45-62, 64-80
Iraklis (Kakioussis): Castle 4, Kekelis 5, Kamperidis, Akepsimaidis, Lampropoulos 13, Lappas 4, Karapostolou 3, Petrovic 13, Tsamatos 4, Bucci 16, Despos 2
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 4, Spanoulis 10, Perperoglou 6, Batiste 17, Fotsis 11, Nicholas 9, Tsartsaris 4, Diamantidis 8, Pekovic 7, Calathes 2, Shermadini 2, Jasikevicius
*The rematch between the two teams will take place on January 20, at OAKA.
Press Conference
Zeljko Obradovic stated after the end of the clash: “We prepared intensely for a Greek Cup semifinal. It is of no importance that the games are a two-set procedure. We competed as if there was no tomorrow, as if it was a knock-out clash. Congratulations to my players, they kept focused and were highly motivated. We were there for all defense switching, full court press, man-to-man and zone defense. We were prepared for every part of this game”. Obradovic did not want to make any comments about all that took place beyond court bounds during the encounter.
Lefteris Kakioussi, Iraklis’s coach stressed: “I do not believe there is any need for a basketball analysis of the encounter. Panathinaikos is European Champion. It is a team of great caliber so much as a sum as at an individual level with players of the most elaborate quality. We tried to present ourselves as aggressive as possible and avoid Panathinaikos’s pressure. I think the game could have played out differently, have had marked a larger score, if the crowd could have been controlled. The fans might have came to the stadium and proved to be genuinely exited towards our team, which is what is requested of them from us, however the whole image could have been better. There was no need for objects to be launched towards the floor, since a great team is so at every level. The clash ended without fans for the 13 last minutes of its duration, but it was something that happened in the team’s best interest. I hope that we get only profit from this game and not that any nasty consequence follow through. The team is in its fourth season in the A2 league, coming off bad years in football and the crowd proceeded to express its grief in a game that was supposed to be a celebration. We reached the Greek Cup semis, essential the F4 and wanted to enjoy it but ultimately could not. Things call for keeping ones temper at every level. If the crowd’s presence continued to be as it was at the beginning of the game, without all the bad incidents with the flying object towards the court that set the possibility of one of the boys being injured in clear view, all would have been better!” Kakiousssis was questioned about the consequences of the continuous interruptions but also about refereeing and he did not fail to input an immediate response: “If one of the opponents was treated unfairly on court today granted the manner of the game played out this evening that was Panathinaikos, since it could not pick up the pace due to all the interruptions. It was an issue that was not to our best interest either, strictly competitive-wise speaking but Panathinaikos not getting to its best performance was favorable for us. As far as refereeing? I don’t think we can make any judgments about refereeing in this encounter. Panathinaikos is a level, no, actually to be precise many levels higher than us and surely is not a team that needs backhanding aid from any refereeing praise”.
