The finals are here… Panathinaikos went for a 3-0 sweep against Panellinios, prevailing at the indoor OAKA stadium by 75-65, currently posing in the finals of the Greek League, where it is destined to meet up with arch-rival Olympiakos. The first clash of the series will take place at OAKA on Wednesday the 26th of May, 21:45(LT), (SKAI TV).
Panathinaikos was unable to pace itself during the entire first half of the encounter. Panellinios took advantage of any possible margin left to it by the home-team’s defense, it fought at the rebound but also enforced pressure on the ball and managed to get the clover in trouble many a times, even getting it to trail in the score. The guests went for a 0-3 opening (0’55’’), only to be leading by 4 at 5’50’’ (9-13), at which point Zeljko Obradovic saw his players counteract the siege to run a mini 6-0 streak of their own (15-13, 7’), getting up by 3 (18-15, 7’45’’). Panathinaikos however experienced a 5’50’’ dry spell, Panellinios regained the lead (18-19, 12’), answer came to flex the score to 25-22 (15’30’’), but a 8-0 run off the visitors presented them with their greatest edge in the matchup (25-30, 18’) Drew Nicholas emerging as the greatest threat at the other end of the court mainly from beyond the arc (3-for-6 threes in 1st half). Behind a pair of his triples the trail was snipped down to its lowest possible price, as 31-32 score was what 20 minutes of game time were worth.
Vassilis Spanoulis drained a three to push Panathinaikos back up to a 6 point cushion (40-34, 23’), the greens trying to establish a pace, run and circulate the ball faster. Plus at the other end become more aggressive in backcourt. However the scene that had been set up on the floor did not seem to change much. Panellinios match anything the clover embarked upon and rather than merely staying alive in the clash, it actually managed to regain the lead yet again (43-44 at 27’10’’, 49-50 at 28’40’’, 50-52 at 29’35’’), only for Jasi to score towards 53-52 slightly prior to third quarter ending. Big-man Batiste got some range from down-town to up the ante for his team to +9 (67-58, 34’10’’), proceeding shortly after on to a notorious slammer that gave the greens their first double digit advantage (+11, 73-62, 37’25’’). And it was in the respective category of a lead that the ball-game ended, as Panathinaikos ultimately prevailed 75-65, final score.
Referees: Gontas, Karakatsounis, Somos
Quarters: 18-17, 31-32, 53-52, 75-65
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic, Spanoulis 4, Perperoglou 10, Batiste 14 (8rbs), Fotsis 5, Nicholas 9, Tsartsaris 3, Diamantidis (5as), Pekovic 11, Calathes 3, Shermadini 2, Jasikevicius 14
Panellinios (Zouros): Xanthopoulos 2, Papamakarios 6, Charalabidis 7, Kalaitzis 4, Smith 9, Petroulas 4, Blakney 7, Davis 6, Vouyoukas 14, Kolokas 5, Kobodietas, Tsakaleris 1
Game quotes
“The players’ minds were on Wednesday’s clash against Olympiakos”, Head Coach Zeljko Obradovic stressed amongst others, Panathinaikos nevertheless gaining the win and qualifying onto the final series of the League after its game with Panellinios. After the game Obradovic stated: “The important thing is that we went for a 3-0 sweep and qualified through to the finals. Congratulations to my players, since we nailed our basic goal. It is clear to anyone that we did not get off on the right foot, because when you miss easy baskets close to the bucket and fail to return in defense and do not try at all in the entire first 6 minutes of the matchup, the same time your opponent sinks 13 points , clearly something is wrong. We got better next, managed to awaken and finally prevailed. Wednesday game across from Olympiakos weighed heavy on the players’ minds. It was good that we faced such a good team as Panellinios. I wish them the best of luck. If we check time sharing in the statistic boards the rotation is the same we will be going for in the ensuing championship. We thank the fans and hope to have a slightly greater gathering in the next encounter”.
Drew Nicholas pointed out that: “We got what we aimed towards, that is a 3-0 sweep. We didn’t start off well whilst we had a hard time in defense across form Panellinios. If you check the stats, we had 38% in twos, when we usually score somewhere in the vicinity of 60%. We must check out our mistakes in view of facing Olympiakos”.
Ilias Zouros, Panellinios Head Coach, stated: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos. We know what team it is. We were facing problems with Owens and Ostoic, while Davis committed only a part of the practice on the night before the game. We were forced to go for zone defense something which I do not prefer. But is seemed to work quite well for us. We fought, proved that we deserve to be where we are at. I hope that we take that extra step to becoming the third team in the League, so as to exceed, as we did in Europe, our set goals on Greek soil”, while he also expressed his wish for a final series of encounters amongst arch-rivals, played out in a sportsmanlike atmosphere.
Yorgos Kalaitzis added: “We had nothing much to lose and we enjoyed the game. We present teamwork spirit. Panathinaikos was focusing on Olympiakos, which was only natural since never has a 2-0 run been overturned. I hope it all the best in winning the championship. As I hope we win our series. We are not worried about not having home-court advantage. We want to be the third team in the League this season. If we play concentrated as we did across from Panathinaikos in the semis, not counting first quarter of the first clash, we have hopes towards being team No 3”.
