In view of a packed to the rim OAKA stadium Panathinaikos out-staged Olympiakos for day 18 of the Greek League by the final score 98-90 notoriously establishing itself at the top spot of the championship. Positive aspects amongst others were great green passion and top notch defense but moreover a scoring crescendo from three clover players. Diamantidis (26), Nicholas (27) and Spanoulis (22) all broke the 20 point threshold leading the way to victory.
Panathinaikos put the pedal to the metal first in the reckoning. It sat at pole position early in the encounter and enforced its pace on the floor throughout the entire first half. 0-2 tip-off break away score provided from Childress swiftly flexed to 3-2 as Drew drained a three even before minute 1 conclusion, 3-4 score was marked at 0’45’’ seeing on to a clover run 7-0 to lead to 10-4 aiding home-team in creating a superlative image on the court. Panathinaikos mounted a +7 cushion (23-16 at 6’35’’), guests counteracted mainly off buckets from Vujcic and tied at 26-26 (9’25’’). The greens though were determined to stick to initial lay-outs. They summed up the quarter ahead (32-28) and kept up at it to reach +13 (43-30, 12’10’’) then on to +14 (46-32, 13’10’’). The rarity of certain dry spells here and there were on no sense enough to get home-team to break a sweat during this first half. Even when the gap closed to 6 (48-42, 17’), answers were found , input hence at the break standings were 14 points apart, 58-44 in favor of the host.
The price of the gap ante upped even further at the middle of the third quarter (70-54, 25’25’’), when Panathinaikos exploited every presented possibility to run the open field have you it through rebounding or as a result of exquisite backcourt behavior, an issue which at some point seemed to be asphyxiating to the opponent. Drew Nicholas and Dimitris Diamantidis stepped up primarily to lead their team in offense. They tallied 19 and 17 points respectively only in the first 20 minutes, the prior enjoying sweet 5-for-7 threes stats whilst the latter was perfect at 4-for-4 also adding 8! Final passes to his accumulated stats revenue. Panathinaikos’s dark spot was Pekovic’s fouling trouble, 3 personals since 16’55, twin tower Mike Batiste going deeper at 27’15’’ with four of his own, the Monte Negron center following in his steps slightly later getting charged at 28’25’’ with his 4th demeanor. All these in views of the clover getting up by 19 (74-55, 26’30’’).
Next to get into the fouling trouble club was Stratos Perperoglou who got to 4 at 31’25’’, Antonis Fotsis falling into their company at 32’25’’. However, Panathinaikos held fast containing Olumpiakos at 11 points a trail (80-69 at 33’09, 82-71 at 34’15’’, 84-73 at 35’50’’, 87-76 at 36’35’’). First player to get fouled out was Fotsis (37’20’’). The lead dropped to 7 (87-80, 37’20’’), Spanoulis popped a pair of charity shots to make 89-80 (38’), only to see on to Perperoglou leave the battle field heading towards the bench with 5 personal fouls. Spanoulis had been passed the torch by Diamantidis and Nicholas and it was he who marked the final 98-90, Panathinaikos sitting at pole position o the league with an edge on trailing Olympiakos.
Referees: Piloidis, Anastopoulos, Koromilas
Quarters: 32-28, 58-44, 79-64, 98-90
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 2, Spanoulis 22, Perperoglou, Batiste 10, Fotsis, Haislip 5, Nicholas 27, Diamantidis 26 (7rbs, 11as), Pekovic 6
Olympiakos (Yannakis): Papaloukas 2, Penn 6, Childress 26, Vujcic 15, Halperin 2, Mavrokefalidis 10, Vassilopoulos 5, Schortsanitis 18, Papanikolaou, Teodosic 6
