Panathinaikos went for a road win across from Maroussi by 82-68 at the indoor stadium of St. Thomas, staying on track of its current winning streak, result which aided it in remaining at pole position of the Greek League coming off day 17 of the championship.
Home-team broke the score open with a swift 6-0 as Kaimakoglou and Keys swapped triples, 1 minute having been played out in the clash. Panathinaikos enforced a counteract and pulled a 10-0 run that cruised it not only to lead but also gradually build an idea of an edge on its host (8-3 at 2’, 8-13 at 4’15’’). Holding fast in backcourt, high velocity game rolling, attempts to discover the easiest went to get the ball in the hole were the main features of the greens’ competing style, Lucas being the culprit at the other end of the court providing answers on behalf of Maroussi, exploited to his best interest even the meekest margin of time up for grabs between Panathinaikos’s defensive switches. The quarter rested at 18-24, Zeljko Obradovic getting his team lead by double digits at 14’40’’ (24-34) before the clash went into recess, half-time score 29-36.
Maroussi tried its best to stay alive in the matchup, despite Panathinaikos’s better opening in the second half where Billy Spanoulis jogged the clover to a sweet +12 cushion at 21’15’’ (29-41) behind a triple pull up jumper. Home team reacted and cut its trail down to 4 (37-41, 22’45’’). It was Dimitris Diamantidis’s turn to step up. Team captain got range thrice from beyond the arc (he had 0-for-2 in the first half) to cruise his team to 43-55 (27’40’’), before Spanoulis edged the clover at 15 points ahead (43-58). The greens kept up at the same level, on the same root, expressing the same passion at every play, on every ball. The gap exploded to +20 (46-66, 33’20’’ and 51-71, 35’20’’). Score 51-71 was produced by Marcus Haislip’s charity shots, awarded to the clover off Yorgos Bartzokas, Maroussi head coach’s second technical foul for protesting hence he was sent off the team’s bench, Nikos Linardos taking over in the encounter all the way down to final game score 68-82.
Referees: Shinas, Tanantzis, Goumas
Quarters: 18-24, 29-36, 43-58, 68-82
Maroussi (Bartzokas): Koumpouras 2, Keys 10, Gordon 14, Pelekanos 7, Batis 2, Homan 13, Nanjfeji 4, Calathes P. 1, Arigbabu, Kaimakoglou 15
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 2, Spanoulis 14, Perperoglou 2, Batiste 11, Fotsis 2, Haslip 15, Nicholas 6, Diamantidis 11, Pekovic 12, Calathes Ν. 3, Shermadini 4, Verginis
*Kostas Tsartsaris, Yorgos Bogris and Sarunas Jasikevicius were not on the official roster.
*Thanassis and Kostas Yannakopoulos were present for yet another one of the team’s road games.
