Panathinaikos established itself even more efficiently at the top of the league’s score board after defeating PAOK at the Pylaia indoor stadium. The greens had first say on matters on the floor all the way from tip-off, any time the home-team tried to edge them they reacted supremely to finally prevail by 82-74.
Panathinaikos stepped on court to run a hasty 7-0 streak (1’25’’), PAOK reached 12-10 (5’) after deciding to feed the ball in the paint, hosting Monroe at the same time, as the perimeter appealing element, not only during these first minutes of game time, but actually throughout the entire encounter. Zeljko Obradovic watched closely as his boys from then took a hold of game control and did not let go up to the finale presented feisty defense, trying to exploit every opportunity to run the open field but also rotate the ball exquisitely at most possessions. Big men Batiste and Peko were the players to provide the team with offensive solutions, Stratos Perperoglou did a fine job in containing Kenny Gregory whilst Fotsis plus Haislip chipped in at scoring, all aforementioned players wrapping up the clash behind double digit scoring stats.
The gap peaked initially at double digits at 15’20’’ (30-42) and mounted its highest price in the reckoning slightly before half time (36-49, 19’10’’). Teams maintained same distances twice more down the stretch (42-55 at 23’, 47-60 at 25’30’’). In the last minutes of the 3rd quarter triples off Demertzis and Monroe plus a two from Tapoutos cut PAOK’s trail down to 4 (58-62). Lazaros Papadopoulos aided the hosts in creeping up even closer to the clover (60-62, 31’), Christos Tapoutos copied his teammate (62-64, 32’20’’). Pekovic combined his efforts with Fotsis to stop the green dry spell only to be followed by Drew Nicholas who pulled a pair of trifectas to make 64-74 (34’30’’). The road towards victory had been revealed to Panathinaikos. Victory sealed by the final 74-82.
Referees: Gontas, Afentoulidis, Foufis,
Quarters: 26-30, 39-49, 58-62, 74-82
PAOK (Markopoulos): Monroe 24, Kafkis, Gregory 8, Tapoutos 6, Helliwell, Demertzis 5, Milisavljevic 9, Kalaitzidis, Papadopoulos 13, Yannakidis, Drobnjak 3, Gecevski 6
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 2, Perperoglou 9, Batiste 15, Fotsis 12, Haislip 10, Nicholas 15, Diamantidis 6, Pekovic 9, Calathes 4
*After the game Dimitris Diamantidis stated: “We played a good game, contained our opponent during the entire clash. PAOK cut its trail at some point but we reacted correctly and I think we got to a fair win. Now we are heading towards an encounter versus Maroussi for Euroleague. It is a game with now point system interest for us this however does not mean that we won’t aim towards prevailing. Euroleague ends for us this season with this game but there is more run in the Greek League and we hope to advance behind positive results”.
*Panathinaikos traveled to Thessaloniki with 11 players. Sidelined were Vassilis Spanoulis (tendonitis to the left knee), Yorgos Bogris (fever), Kostas Tsartsaris (fractured hand) and Giorgi Shermadini (no contract in the Greek League).
