It was an easy afternoon for Panathinaikos at a home game for day 21 in the Greek League, where the greens defeated Ilissiakos by 110-81, coach Obradovic sharing action time in ample doses to the youngsters, who this time made him a proud man, avoiding turnovers and managing to maintain a measurable distance from their rivals.
In the minutes coming off tip-off neither team seemed to be able to step away from each other. Ilissiakos tried to stay alive in the clash and pulled it off quite well up to a certain extent, mainly praise to Vontigo Cummings, who in the 1st quarter alone had 4-for-4 triples, weighing though at respect stats all the way down to intermission.
Panathinaikos had a high spirited Sarunas Jasikevicius behind 7 points and 4 perfect passes in the 11’15’’ he played for in the first half of the encounter, being amongst the initial 5’ alongside Diamantidis, Tepic, Tsartsaris and Batiste. Obradovic decided to give time to the theoretically “young” players on the time quite early in the clash. Nick Calathes, Yorgos Bogris, Dimitris Verginis had already been introduced to the floor from minute 16 next to Milenko Tepic and Stratos Perperoglou. Ages respectively were 21, 21, 23, 23 and 26. Average age 22,8. The gap slightly before Drew Nicholas headed towards the bench trading his spot with Verginis had mounted 15 points (47-32, 16’) behind a bucket of the American guard, price that it reached twice until the break (51-36 at 18’ and 55-40 at 20’). Panathinaikos had caught the pace, the youngsters made an honest man out of Obradovic who made use of them quite a bit in the second half also, present his other players with valuable breathers. The gap kept expanding even further to peak at +28 (93-65, 33’30’’) Stratos Perperoglou marking 100 points for the greens (100-73, 37’10’’). One of the greatest benefits of the matchup was Kostas Tsartsaris’ s performance. In his second game after returning from his injury, he deposed an entirely positive sample, closing the encounter behind 19 points and 6 rebounds in 22’25’’ of action time. Verginis upped the ante to 30 points at 39’50’’ (108-78) as curtains finally fell in the encounter behind closing score 110-81.
Referees: Gontas, Manos, Pantelidis
Quarters: 32-22, 55-40, 85-63, 110-81
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 12, Perperoglou 10, Batiste 6, Fotsis 5, Nicholas 8, Tsartsaris 19 (6rbs), Diamantidis 4, Pekovic 13, Calathes 11 (6as, 6rbs)), Verginis 7, Bogris 6 (5rbs), Jasievicius 9 (6as)
Ilissiakos (Koufos):Carter7, Kapniaris 5, Cummings 17, Papanikolaou 7, Koukoulas 2, Chatzis 9, Athanassoulas 9, Sioutis, Vidalis 1, Hunter 14, Ioannou 8, Kasselakis 2
Game quotes
Panathinaikos nailed a win behind a measurable advantage against Ilissiakos, Zeljko Obradovic getting to offer game time to players who do not get to compete so often, simultaneously being able to rest certain players who really needed it. Panathinaikos’s head coach spoke of both sides of the same coin: “It was a good game to attend. I am very pleased that the crowd recognized Ilissiakos’s effort. Both coaches tried to offer game time to those who were lacking it. I tried to rest Batiste, Diamantidis, Nicholas, Fotsis and give time to certain players who needed it in order to obtain self confidence. The opposing coach acted respectively as he chose not to use Cumming a lot in the second half in spite of him being extremely good in the first half of the matchup. This does wonders for the sport. Congratulations once more to Ilissiakos for its great game which was also appealing for its spectators. Against Kavala it was a whole different ball game. In that encounter I was forced to use Diamantidis for 30 minutes. In this game we were focused from the beginning. There were problems in defense but this happened due to Ilissiakos being well prepared. I had stated in the press conference after the game with Kavala that our shortcoming was that we had not performed aggressive training due to injuries. I told everyone to set their pain aside and help the team in practices. I am very pleased with our last two practices. Now we have only Haislip and Spanoulis sidelined. We have 13 players including Shermadini and this presents us with the possibility to train well. We explained to the players that the next three weeks are very important and we must train well in view of the upcoming play-offs but also for the encounter left up to the end of the regular season. There is no such thing us an easy game, something I know all too well from personal experience. It is not a normal thing for us to be left without obligations in another tournament, nevertheless we still have a goal remaining, the Greek League and we must work hard”.
Next to Obradovic in the press conference was Yorgos Bogris, one of the youngsters who got some action against Ilissiakos, Bogris former team: “It was an easy win. We played well during certain periods of time and relaxed at others. We must keep our focus on the last goal we have left o aim towards. Today was a prime time opportunity for us who do not compete in the rest of the games. We hope to be as ready as possible any time we are called upon by our coach. I wish Ilissiakos all the best, seeing that it is my previous team, so as to be able to remain in the top category of the Greek League”.
Stergios Koufos, Ilissiakos’s head coach, but also Bogris’s coach in season last, commented on the 21 year center amongst other things: “Such games are great to watch. As is for a coach great for him to see players “hatch the egg”. The young players showed nerve, an element requested from them by us. We had nothing to assert in this game. I hope this performance can present us with the strength to get to remain in the category. Because we deserve it after all the hard work we input. I am very pleased with Bogris, a kid that emerged from the barracks of Ilissiakos”.
19year old Dionissis Kapniaris, Ilissiakos’s player noted: “We can only derive positive results from the game. We played good basketball at times. The team gave out playing time to players such as myself and I would like to express my gratitude for that. In the next games which are crucial we must live up to expectations so as to get to remaining in the category, our main goal”.
