Panathinaikos clutched top spot in the Greek League regular season and alongside the home-court advantage for the play-offs. By edging AEK at the OAKA arena 91-62 it mathematically secures first position of the category regardless of what might happen in the League’s final game on Wednesday (28/04), the clover coming up against Kolossos at Rhodes.
Panathinaikos got to maintain the pace it had enforced in the previous clashes something that showed up on the score board as the greens got to expand the gap quite sufficiently and gain the reigns of the encounter straight after tip-off, show-time plays on the menu for yet another evening. The green will was to run the open field all too apparent as coach Obradovic requested it during the matchup.
Things on the floor balanced out to some extent in the 1st quarter, but from then on and all down the stretch clover complete dominance was more than obvious at every possible level. Defense sounded the horn to go for a ante upping in score distance prices. Pressure on pocket-picking but also control over board-gathering saw on to fast-breaks and ample easy buckets, AEK unable to follow the rhythm frenzy.
First half ended at 46-32, the gap became more than 20 points as 30 minutes elapsed in the game (64-43, 30’) and reached highest price at +33 of an advantage (89-56, 38’) only for curtains to fall final score at 91-62.
Referees: Karakatsounis, Kaldiris, Nikoloulis
Quarters: 22-17, 46-32, 64-43, 91-62
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 2, Spanoulis 7 (5as), Perperoglou 4, Batiste 13 (6rbs), Fotsis 11 (6rbs), Nicholas 5, Tsartsaris 5 (6rbs), Diamantidis 11, Pekovic 16, Calathes 7, Shermadini 1, Jasikevicius 9
ΑΕΚ (Gekos): Marinos 2, Green 12, Nikolaidis 16, Mazeika 4, Mack 7, Papantoniou 2, Dorkofiis 2, Kallinikidis 7, Tountziarakis 2, Francis 8, Mells, Gizogiannis
“It was a good game after all”
Zeljko Obradovic didn’t say much about the clash with AEK, but the most important element was that the Serbian coach ensured all that the team will be ready for the play-offs. As he stated: “It was a good game. But I am not pleased with certain details. In the first half we did not play good defense on some pick n’ rolls. Also we got to certain easy turnover but these were committed because we were trying to perform a fast game. We faced the switches in AEK’s defense perfectly. We performed a good game for yet another evening after all. Good luck to AEK in its last game. We thank our fans for their support. We have one more game in the regular season and then we await to find out the identity of our opponent in the play-offs. But we are ready”. Antonis Fotsis noted: “We are going through a period of time were we have only one game to play a week. We have lots of time to train. We did a great job and it showed up on the court. We came to conclusions this evening. To continue in the same fashion and present ourselves as prepared as possible in the paly-offs”. Minas Gekos for AEK stressed: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos and to its coach. We can’t say much about the game, the final score does not allow any margin for comments. We knew what we are up against. But all our preparation has took place for Wednesday. We played as best we could and we are ready for the encounter of Wednesday. The recess in the League work well for certain teams, not all. It was not a good thing for us. It took us out of our routine. We were missing our tall guy, we saw his issue from a human point of view and decided to let him stay out a little longer. We knew what was to happen today and all we aspired towards was a good appearance. We stressed on Wednesday’s game”. Finally Periklis Dorkofikis stated that the game with Illisiakos is a final and called upon the team’s fans to fill the stadium”.
*Dimitris Diamantidis got bumped up to second place in the Greek League’s all team “thieves” list after tallying 3 in the game with AEK. First spot is covered by Angelos Koronios behind 583, second in line Panathinaikos team captain behind 549 and third spot now belongs to Yorgos Sigalas with 547.
