It was quite a noisy evening at the Nea Smirni indoor arena. The clash between home team Panionios and defending champ Panathinaikos which produced the latter as the winner by 107-59 was interrupted in order for the stadium to be evacuated after a call from the officials for such measures. Panathinaikos having swept Panionios situated itself in round 2 of the Greek League play-offs and know is to face Panellionios still in possession of home-court advantage.
An encounter that finally played out more aggressively than that at the OAKA arena on Saturday last. As both head coach Obradovic and players had stated Panionios presented tougher and more prepared at its home, managing to hold the fort much longer. Panathinaikos led (5-10, 2’50’’) only for the hosts to get up by 1 behind a Travon Bryant attempt (14-13 at 6’15’’) then on to 18-16 at 7’30’’. However the green backcourt became more stifling, collaborations started to pay-off more profitably resulting in an 8-0 run for the clover, leading to 18-24, 1st quarter score.
In the 2nd quarter everything work much more better for the greens at both ends of the court. The 20-24, 11’15’’ score, became 20-33 (14’) Vassilis Spanoulis swapping triples with Sarunas Jasikevicius three times in three consecutive offenses, the prior going for more by undertaking the task of breaching Panionios’s defensive line with his trademark deep penetrations, tallying further than 10 points up to the break but also 5 perfect passes to his teammates. The gap expanded even further to peak at the conclusion of the first half, big man Peko marking 28-48.
Game recommencing, the Monte Negron getting the score board reading 28-50, the refs stopped the game, requesting the evacuation of the stadium, “wish” which was granted. When the game restarted almost 20 minutes later found Panathinaikos as the pure dominator on the floor, mounting +32 (38-70, 26’05’’) and then +38 for the first time at 29’30’’ (42-80). Teams stood at the same distances all the way down to minute 30’ and third quarter inning (44-82).
The 41 point edge was accomplished praise to Stratos Perperoglou who unleashed a three t0 44-85 (32’), Yorgos Bogris getting his name up on the score-board to cruise the clover to a sweet +47 cushion (59-106, 39’20’’), Nick Calathes setting final score at 59-107. Victory meant 2-0 for Panathinaikos in the first round of the Greek League play-offs. Panathinaikos had half of Panionios’s turnovers (13-6), double the assists (12-25) and prevailed at rebounding (34-26).
Referees: Gontas, Foufis, Manos
Quarters: 18-24, 28-48, 44-82, 59-107
Panionios (Markovic): Rice 4, Bryant 12, Zoroski 13, Papanikolaou 3, Borovnjak 10, Charitopoulos 10, Giannopoulos 3, Erceg 2, Jankovic, Athineou 2, Elder
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 5, Spanoulis 13 (8as), Perperoglou 11, Batiste 4, Fotsis 14, Nicholas 11, Tsartsaris 7, Diamantidis 16, Pekovic 8, Calathes 7, Bogris 3, Jasikevicius 8
*Giorgi Shermadini (gastroenteritis) and Dimitris Verginis were not included in the official line-up.
*The game began after a 15 minute delay as incidents took place prior to tip-off. It was interrupted twice after delaying the game’s final conclusion even further seeing that at some point the officials even abandoned the court.
Game quotes
Zeljko Obradovic was pleased in his team’s performance and the victory of course and had nothing but praising words for the squad in the press conference. “We played a very good game today, keeping focused all through its duration and were not influenced by the interruptions, an issue the home team suffered from. The distance in the score was of a measurable difference but it does not reflect the real difference between both opponents”, the head coach of the clover stated whilst Stratos Perperoglou added: “We wanted to play a good game and sweep the series, something I believe we managed since we performed well and did not get much resist from Panionios. Now we will get prepared for the upcoming games and hopefully we will continue at the same pace”.
Nenad Markovic had nothing but flattering words to state for Panathinaikos, as he said: “It is in great form and its is playing as if it was preparing for the Euroleague F4, actually if it had qualified to it it could have most likely conquered it”. He continued: “It is quite upsetting for any team to be facing Panathinaikos now, as it is playing exquisitely in every department. We were unable to do something since the clash was up to Panathinaikos’s players entirely. I believe that our young players gained something for this encounter. You cannot be called a fighter in a month’s effort, but after constant hard work. Coach Obradovic has been here for 11 years, being at the top is not something that can be taught, you get to be there only if you input the labor. The Panathinaikos players were constantly one step ahead of us”.
Finally Dimitris Charitopoulos stressed: “Panathinaikos is at top notch state but we did not want to finish up like this. We look ahead towards the new season”
