Panathinaikos went for a road win versus home-team Panellinios at the ‘‘Chalkiopoulio’’ indoor gym of Lamia , final game score 80+73 for the greens, in views of day 13 in the HEBA League. The clover did not feature Stratos Perperoglou who remained in Athens with a slight cold but also did not give any action to Kostas Tsartsaris who faced trouble in his knee.
Panathinaikos presented a without pace and focus first half. On the contrary Panellinios in spite the fact that it was also missing a few players (Kalaitzis, Papamakrios, Ostojic), nevertheless found a great motive in the opponent’s name and tried from minute one to fight for all it could possibly get to. The greens from 6-10 (4’55’’) Mike Batiste dominating in the first few minutes, found themselves trailing to 21-12 (9’25’’), Vassilis Xanthopoulos getting game for the hosts. Return to the court led the clover to a 12 point trail (29-17, 13’15’’). The image improved when Panathinaikos enforced pressure in backcourt, either using traps or spreading the defense to a full court range, managed to gallop to easy buckets and pick up the slack to a 5 point shadow (31-26, 16’20’’), but alas it could not sustain its performance. Panellinios reformed its double digits gap (38-28, 17’40’’), only for the break to arrive score board reading 42-36, Zeljko Obradovic seeing a big fat zero-for-11 threes, many of which let it be noted were unguarded shots.
First good three pointer of the eve came behind Drew Nicholas, who had already missed 4 times himself, score flexing to 44-41 (22’25’’). Home-team fought back to go for a 4-0 run (48-41, 23’25’’). This was the game’s turning point. Panathinaikos became more aggressive in defense, whilst in offense Mike Batiste went for personal attempts leading to a 48-48 tie (25’05’’), only to assist Nicholas to the lead (48-50, 25’50’’) for the first time since 5’20’’ (8-10). Second green three of the clash was drilled by Romain Sato to get the score board reading 50-53 (26’40’’), Antonis Fotsis going for a three-point-play to 50-56 (27’30’’), third quarter resting at 54-61, Kostas Kaimakoglou copying Fotsis’s previous action, the pair posing as the team’s two big-men at the specific time.
Panathinaikos started off strong in defense once more, illustrating proper aid in order for it to get to lead for the first time in double digits (54-65, 31’30’’), the team’s fans once more stating their presence next to the it in a dynamic fashion. The ante was upped to +15 (57-72, 34’). A pair of dunks flushed by Steven Smith led to +9 (65-74, 37’45’’), Panellinios closed the gap even further behind 4 points tallied to Krabbenhoft’s tab (67-74, 39’05’’), Diamantidis getting a set of good free throws in to 69-76 (39’12’’), battle ultimately concluding at 73-80.
Referees: Papapetrou, Tavoulareas, Pantazis
Quarters: 21-14, 42-36, 54-61, 73-80
Panellinios (Skourtopoulos): Xanthopoulos 17, Krabbenhoft 12, Smith 18, Sklavos, Udrich 20, Francis 6, Kolokas, Kobodietas
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 9, Batiste 14, Fotsis 9, Sato 9, Nicholas 11, Diamantidis 10, Vougioukas 4, Calathes 6, Kaimakoglou 13
*Thanassis and Kostas Yannakopoulos were present at the ΄‘Chalkiopoulio’’ arena in Lamia , in order to watch the team’s effort in the flesh.
