Panathinaikos was in for a struggle at the Kipseli indoor stadium when facing home-team Panellinios, however it ultimately prevailed 75-73, reaching 2-0 in the semis series. All it needs now is a single victory in order to see on to the finals of the HEBA championship.
Minutes coming off tip-off were entirely home-team game. Panellinios proceeded on to a very powerful start-off, especially compared to the one it had performed a few days earlier at OAKA in semifinal No1. It ran a swift 5-0 (0’50’’), to see on to 7-2 (1’30’’) and even further 9-4 (2’30’’) hence making honest men out of both technical staff and players of Panathinaikos, since Panellinios lived up to their sentiments expressed on Sunday last, of being an improved team at its home. Clearly it was a whole different ball game. The greens surfaced problems in backcourt while Panellinios got game mostly close to the basket praise mainly to Smith and Vouyoukas, Blakney bringing his experience to the aid of the party.
Panathinaikos went for an 8-0 run which set it at pole position (9-12, 6’25’’), Dimitris Diamantidis getting range twice from beyond the arc. The edge mounted to +6 (13-19, 9’40’’) before the quarter rested at 14-19. The image though started to gradually flex, the clover picked up the pace, contained its rival in defense, stepped on the exhilarator to reached to be up by double digits (14-24) for the first time at 11’40’’. Panellinios sought for solutions, enforced zone defenses, Panathinaikos went for full-court pressure. All this resulted in the host cutting the trail (27-35, 16’40’’), advance though which was not left unanswered as an immediate 9-0 response was input in less than 2 minutes time, producing the 19’05’’ 27-44 score, half-time hosting the score board reading at 30-44.
From the last minute before the break, home-team had already left signs of an eagerness to get back in the game. This eagerness was even more apparent, game recommencing, as Panellinios set out to make actions out of its intentions. Panathinaikos got all the way up to a +13 edge (37-50, 23’25’’) but Smith and Papamakarios snipped the lead down to 7 (43-50, 24’40’’). Zeljko Obradovic saw his players step away once more behind double digits (45-55 at 26’40’’ and 47-57 at 27’), although the last three minutes of the quarter were all home-team as they embarked on a come-back led by Charalabidis to reach 30’ score only 4 points shy (56-60). During third quarter Panathinaikos tallied 5 turnovers, which was the same amount it had committed in the entire first quarter, while Panellinios had 6 assists in the respective period of time, across from the 2 it had got in the first half of the clash.
Panellinios crept up even closer to a two apart (58-60) as the fourth quarter began and managed actually to tie behind a Vassilis Xanthopoulos bucket (60-60, 32’50’’). Panathinaikos found solutions from the charity line, initially behind Nikola Pekovic and then Antonis Fotsis who created the 60-64, 34’40’’ score, the Monte Negron big-man leading on t0 +6 (60-66, 35’10’’). However, the clash was far from ended as a pair of down-town shots sunk by the hosts tuned the score into 65-66 (37’). A couple of free-throws and a steal by Nick Calathes turned out to be crucial on order for Panathinaikos to re-create a slight advantage to 67-72 (37’55’’). Smith stepped up to 70-72 (39’07’’) and presented his team with the lead by pulling a triple to 73-72, 13’’68 left on the game clock. Obradovic called a time-out, the ball was sent to Drew Nicholas’ hands who found himself wide open to mark 75-73 for Panathinaikos to seal 2-0 in the semis series, currently aspiring to also seal its ticket to the final round at clash No 3 at the OAKA stadium on Sunday (23/05).
Referees: Papadimitriou, Tanatzis, Tavoulareas
Quarters: 14-19, 30-44, 56-60, 73-75
Panellinios (Zouros): Xanthopoulos 2, Papamakarios 3, Charalabidis 12, Kalaitzis 3, Owens, 2, Smith 22, Petrouls, Kolokas, Blakney 10, Davis 5, Vouyoukas 14
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 4, Spanoulis 6, Perperoglou 5, Batiste 10, Fotsis 7, Jasikevicius 8, Nicholas 5, Tsartsaris 4, Diamantidis 13 (9rbs, 7as), Pekovic 11, Calathes 2
*The third encounter amongst the two team will take place on Sunday the 23rd of May (18:45, SKAI) at the OAKA indoor arena.
*Dimitris Diamantidis felt much better and the discomfort he had experience in his lower back at the end of the practice on the night before the game did not eventually keep him out of the clash
