Panathinaikos combined a good appearance with a road win against Trikala by the final 101-72 game score for day 22 of the HEBA League, Zeljko Obradovic making use of all players at his disposal and exploiting the prime time opportunity to try out schemes and plays.
No margin of doubting Panathinaikos’s superlative was left to Trikala by the greens. The Clover broke away from tip-off with a sweet 0-7 run (1’50’’) and made it all too clear on the floor that it was determent to turn words into actions and keep in line with its
statements in the days leading up to the clash that respect and maturity should
be awarded towards all possible direction. Home-team cut the trail down to a single point (8-9, 3’50’’) but from then forward lost their feel to the score, Panathinaikos circulating the ball exquisitely in order to estimate the player in the most advantageous position to the bucket, coming up roses in backcourt behind feisty defense, dominating in the battle of the boards, leading guys Antonis Fotsis and Nikola Pekovic, the prior undertaking all kinds of assignments on the floor (including top notch defense on Zupan), the latter simply without any measurable matchup whatsoever.
The greens upped the ante into double digits at 6’45’’ off a triple drained by Drew Nicholas to 9-20, first quarter resting at 14-30, leading on to a new 7-0 run for the clover to get the score board reading from 18-32 at 11’20’’ to 18-39 at 14’07’’. At this point the pace rather than dropping, got even more intense, the guests apart from all that was being marked in the statistic logs was also committing a quite pleasing appearance all the way up to +30 (30-60) as the game went into recess standings at 32-60. 20 minutes into the game and the green dominance was more than apparent in the statistic categories as it enjoyed 17-for-22 twos, 6-for-11 threes, 5-for-8 free throws and the upper hand in rebounding (17-to-13), assists (14-to-4), steals (4-to-2) while having committed only 5 turnovers across from home-team’s respective 9. All this, coach Obradovic having used from quite early 11 out of 12 players at his disposal and Vassilis Spanoulis returning to action. The last encounter he had participated in was at an away clash versus Partizan for the Euroleague (4/3), having been sidelined facing an knee tendonitis injury.
Return to the floor aided Trikala in picking up the slack to 25 points a margin (35-60, 21’) but Panathinaikos was prepared to input an immediate response. A triple off Spanoulis and 5 points chipped in by Stratos Perperoglou got the guests up by 31 (37-68, 23’40’’) the same time that the technical staff got an opportunity to try certain situations out so much in defense as in offense in view of what’s up next. The gap expanded to its highest price slightly prior to 3rd quarter completion (45-77, 28’), Trikala fighting back to 54-80 at 30’.
First minutes of the fourth quarter were sealed offensively by Sarunas Jasikevicius, the
Lithuanian guard leading the way to +37 (57-94, 34’50’’) Nick Calathes adding even
further to +38 (57-95, 34’55’’). At 37’20’’ Yorgos Bogris got his name up on the score
board (61-99) only to be the provider of the centurion bucket for the clover (69-101,
39’43’’) game coming to an end behind the 101-72 final score.
Referees: Mouzakis, Bitis, Malandris (Ganatzios)
Quarters: 14-30, 32-60, 54-80, 72-101
Trikala (Yaples): Gizogiannis 3, Biggs 13, Prodromou, Noeas 4, Katsares 9, Simcak 2, Apostolidis 16, Yang 6, Marmarinos, Zupan 19, Sakellariou
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 5, Spanoulis 5, Perperoglou 7, Batiste 11, Fotsis 11, Nicholas 12, Tsartsaris 7, Diamantidis 4, Pekovic 18, Calathes 3, Bogris 4, Jasikevicius 14
Game quotes
Koastas Tsartsaris: “The games help us establish a rhythm but also aid in rehabilitating the injured in the team. We want to win but play well also, in view of the upcoming play-offs. Personally as far as my injury goes, I feel splendid, I feel no annoyances but all these are a matter of chance. I hope that all goes well and nothing like what happened to me occurs in anyone else’s expense. That we are all healthy from now on”.
Press Conference
Zeljko Obradovic could be nothing but pleased with his players’ efforts, but he steered his focus mainly towards the second half of the matchup: “We had seven days to prepare for this game, something of a uncommon situation for us. We used this period of time to refresh certain players, while at some point we got to have even up to 14 players in a single training, a situation that we had a long time to experience. However the best practice was this game. We were mature, had a great first half, Trikala nevertheless being the better achiever in the rest of the encounter. Congratulations to my players for showing the according maturity. I hope Trikala will be able to achieve its set goals”.
Obradovic did not oversee expressing a “thank you” since prior to tip-off he was honored by the administration of the home-team: “Personally I would like to thank Trikala for the award. It was something different and a pleasant surprise for me. I would also like to thank all the fans that attended the game and stood by our side from the beginning all down the stretch with both voice and presence”.
Kostas Tsartsaris stressed: “We had a week to work on certain elements of the game that we aspired to be able to apply in this particular encounter. Our goal is to maintain first spot in the Greek Leaue, to enter the play-offs with home-court advantage so as to nail the title. Personally every time I practice I feel better and I adjust more and more hoping to help my team”.
Trikala coach, Thanassis Yaples stated: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos and I wish it all the best for the ensuing championship. In the first half we were not present on the floor, getting to fall back by 30 points. We were forced to talk with greater intensity during the intermission because it had come down to a matter of pride. We managed to present an improved game and we must look upon what’s up next. The team’s image in trainings is dropping. We have lots of hard work ahead and now is the time to crunch down because we have hard encounters ahead of us which will ultimately judge are remaining or not in the category. Slobodan Bozovic is participating in our practices and he is showing some good signs. However since we are allowed only one foreigner substitution we must be very careful in our choice".
