Panathinaikos capitalized on a very prosperous second half to get to an away win against AEK by 85-47 at the Elliniko indoor stadium, a closed set encounter.
The basic aspired element for Panathinaikos was the pace. It opted to managed in spite the bitter cold of the Elliniko indoor stadium to lead matters on court towards its best interest, as far as the clash’s tempo went. By prevailing at the boards, enjoying more possessions whilst only 9 turnovers to show for its loss list it swiftly got over AEK’s 4-0 run to go for a streak of its own, 8-0 (4-8, 4’30’’), presented with an edge it held fast on to all the way down the stretch to half-time buzzer that sounded to find the clover at its greatest lead up to now (+13, 23-36).
Game recommencing after intermission, Panathinaikos embarked on full court pressure in defense. Traps led to steals or to opponents shooting in distressful situations. At the other end of the court offences played out much more wisely than before, Zeljko Obradovic appeared immensely calmer on the green bench as his boys started to drift further and further away from their hosts. They got to easy buckets, ran the open field, rested on a soft +20 cushion for the first time at 25’30’’ (30-50) behind Milenko Tepic and continued down the same path to leave home-team trailing even by 28 points, Dimitris Diamantidis Sarunas Jasikevicius currently sharing a pair of triples (35-63, 29’30’’).
Obradovic gave ample game time to Diamantidis, got Kostas Tsartsaris on a very pleasing evening as was Milenko Tepic thus standings remained at the same level, the greens nevertheless never giving up on fighting to contain. The gap expanded, climbed to +36 (47-83, 39’10’’), as Dimitris Verginis laid-in the final hoop that formed final score at 47-85.
Referees: Gontas, Karakatsounis, Panagiotou
Quarters: 11-15, 23-36, 37-63, 47-85
AEK (Pedoulakis): Marinos, Green 2, Nikolaidis 10, Mels 1, Mack 10, Papantoniou 5, Jeremic, Antonakis, Kallinikidis 9, Tountziarakis 3, Francis 7
Panathinaikos (Panathinaikos): Shermadini 10, Tepic 11, Verginis 2, Perperoglou 9, Batiste 13, Fotsis 2, Jasikevicius 7, Nicholas, Tsartsaris 13, Diamantidis 5, Pekovic 10, Calathes 3
Diamantidis is back
Dimitris Diamantidis got back in the game for Panathinaikos. Drew Nicholas got over the discomfort he felt in his knee and got some action time whilst Vassilis Spanoulis in spite of the fact he felt much better was however sidelined in order to avoid risking a relapse.
The Euroleague draw
On the noon of the 18th of January (1400h LT) at Barcelona the Top16 Euroleague draw will take place. Team manager Manos Papadopoulos will be present. The 16 teams and the respective tiers are as follows:
Barcelona, Olympiakos, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid
Montepschi Siena, Unicaja Malaga, Caja Laboral, Panathinaikos
Zalgiris Kaunas, Partizan, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Khimki
Cibona Zagreb, Efes Pilsen, Maroussi, Asseco Prokom
Game quotes
Zeljko Obradovic was very pleased with Panathinaikos’s victory over AEK but also with his team’s performance at the indoor stadium of Elliniko.
The clover’s head coach stressed at the press conference: “We played a great game, especially in defense and got to an easy win. Difference between part 1 and part 2 is because of our pressure in defense performed in the second half that allowed us to easy baskets, but also our quality in set game situations. Congratulations to my players for the victory and their attitude on court”.
Referring to the Euroleague draw Obradovic commented: “We are not interested in our rivals’ identity, anyway when you are up for titles you must play against the best. Let us not forget the fact that never on our way towards the F4 have we ever come across easy opponents”.
