Panathinaikos had no problem downing Panionios at the indoor OAKA arena. The greens defeated their opponent by 109-55, Zeljko Obradovic being presented with a prime time opportunity to clear off the bench for the clash.
The game was a done deal early in the encounter, as far as who would be the winner. Panathinaikos allowed no margin of a doubt for its guest to be able to pose as any kind of a threat and from the first few minutes on court made it crystal clear that it was going to enforce both law and pace from coast to coast of the floor. The gap did nothing but expand. Romain Sato took the lead in scoring, posting up shorter defender Milos Vujanic, and then came caprtain Diamantidis, all clover players joining in next. At the inning of the first quarter the greens were up by 18 (32-14), up by 20 at 10’45’’ (34-14), up by 30 at 28’ (81-41), rhythm never dropping, Panathinaikos keeping up the good job with the equivalent conviction, Zeljko Obradovic giving Mike Batiste quite a chunk of the action, trying out scheme after scheme. The gap was priced at 43 (84-41, 29’), third quarter resting at 86-44. Score-board presented a double score at 30’40’’ (88-44), but still the greens seemed to be unstoppable. Continuously upping the ante they stepped away from their opponent even further to a roaring 49 point cushion (93-44, 32’20’’), big-man Yorgos Bogris sending the distance all the way up to +51 (102-51, 36’30’’), the aforementioned youngster getting more game under the hoop to form score 106-51 (38’, +54), actually being the culprit to score last on the floor to final game score 109-55 off a charity shot to swoosh the net into clash completion.
Referees: Papapetrou. Pafilis, Theonas
Quarters: 32-14, 58-24, 86-44, 109-55
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 10, Perperoglou 4, Batiste 12, Fotsis 10, Sato 16, Tsartsaris 8, Diamantidis 6, Vougioukas 12, Calathes 13, Bogris 5, Kaimakoglou 11, Zoubos 2
Panionios (Bartzokas): Mcleod 23, Athanasoulas 2, Vujanic 4, Giannopoulos 2, Tsiaras 6, Batis 2, Jankovic 2, Kavvadas 4, Ioannou 2, Covile 4, Paragios 2, Barlos 2
*Mike Batiste returned to action at minute 6 of the game. Batiste had been sidelined since being injured in a home-court game across from Union Olimpija (9/12/2010). Sidelined in the encounter for Panathinaikos were Drew Nicholas (trouble in the lower back) and Aleks Maric.
Diamantidisontop
Dimitris Diamantidis conquered yet another top spot. At half-time behind his 3 committed assists he reached number 1, Angelos Koronios in the respective all-time list in the Greek League. Panathinaikos captain mounted 1264… but did not rest at this. He rapidly gave up on the idea of a “roommate” and decided to opt for his on penthouse tallying 3 more assist already in the first 4 minutes of the second half. Overall he accumulated 6 perfect passes, to get to 1267, currently posing as the best Greek League “waiter” ever!
Second all-time largest victory
Panthinaikos’s victory versus Panionios is the second largest victory of all-time in the greens’ stride through the Greek League history. Largest ever was +62 across from Makodonikos, at home, back in 2006-07 season. +54 against Panionios trails (109-55) and then follows +52 against Essperos, 1999-00 season (97-45).
