Through pure dominance and prevailing in every possible department on the floor, Panathinaikos suffocated arch rival Olympiakos in a 73-54 fashion in game 1 of the final series in the Greek League at the OAKA stadium. Next rendezvous amongst rivals is set for the Stadium of Peace and Friendship on Sunday, May 30 (21:45 LT).
Recognizing moments in the clash played-out in a tensed atmosphere, provided from both sides of the matchup. The key to break the game open and get it lean towards home-team was presented primarily by Antonis Fotsis. By sinking a pair of nothing-but-net triples to “stretch the D with the 3’” flexed 6-6, 3’50’’ score to 12-6 (4’50’’), the lead rising to 9 (17-8 at 6’10’’, 19-10 at 7’50’’). Guests managed to cut the trail by surprising the greens a couple of times in consecutive offenses, getting to easy buckets, actually picking up the slack to a single point of a distance at second quarter opening behind a pair of free-throws poured in by Yannis Bourousis. The remaining half of the game though was all clover case. The booster this time emerged through the hands of Vassilis Spanoulis. Two of his trifectas plus a sweet pass in the paint to Nikola Pekovic made 33-20 (14’20’’), the gap expanded to +15 (41-26) as at the end of the second quarter, Antonis Fotsis drained yet another hoop from beyond the arc. Slightly earlier, the entire Panathinaikos bench had missed a heartbeat, as team captain Dimitris Diamantidis left the game, hobbling towards it, seeming to have suffered an injury to the ankle while fighting for a board. Panathinaikos superlative was a fact apparent also on the stat list, as Pana was best in class at rebounding (21-12), assists (10-4), getting good range at the triple in 5-for-12 standards, visitors not once making the shot, standing shy at 0-for12!
Diamantidis though, was intact when teams returned from the recess and was present for action time. As was of course Stratos Perperoglou who unleashed a long-haul of his own to sent the ante to a +18 level (44-26, 20’20’’). First zone defense in the second half from the guests was fined with a three point bucket by Diamantidis (50-31, 23’20’’), Fotsis sailed the team to +22 (53-21, 24’20’’) before official Lazaros Voreadis charged a technical to Pana bench, this plus a foul that had already been tallied in its expense. All this resulted in four committed free throws (3-for-4 shared between Vujcic and Teodosic) but the pending offense off the technical did not provide the visitors with any point value (53-34, 25’10’’), however a little later they did manage to creep up on their hosts to 53-36 at 25’40’’. Dynamic trio Spanoulis-Tsartsaris-Batiste re-established the +22 advantage (59-37, 27’50’’), Sarunas Jasikevicius’s first action time following in the encounter (61-39, 28’40’’). Usual suspect big man Batiste was the culprit to send the entire stadium roaring into the air as he got game under the hole, flushing the ball notoriously, a one-hander in-your-face- Kleiza dunk at that (63-40, 29’). Tsartsaris made sure to extend the festivities as he cruised the team to mount a +24 lead (66-42), coming off third quarter, the aforementioned actually making 68-42 (32’45’’, +26). Panathinaikos suffered a 10 point run (68-52, 36’50’’), offensive answer coming ultimately from Drew Nicholas, game finally resting at 38’10’’ score, 73-54.
Referees: Voreadis, Schinas, Koromilas
Quarters: 19-16, 41-26, 66-42, 73-54
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic, Spanoulis 7 (4as), Perperoglou 6, Batiste 13, Fotsis 13, Nicholas 5 (4as), Tsartsaris 10, Diamantidis 7 (9rbs, 5as), Pekovic 10, Calathes, Jasikevicius 2
Olympiakos (Yannakis): Papaloukas 4, Penn 2, Childress 7, Vujcic 3, Bourousis 9, Kleiza 13 , Mavrokefalidis, Schortsanitis 6, Beverly, Teodosic 10
