Panathinaikos beat Ilissiakos 88-71 in views of day 15 in the HEBA league at the indoor OAKA arena, in an encounter committed behind closed doors, home-team illustrating to different images.
Unable to obtain any kind of rhythm was Panathinaikos in the first half of the encounter, presenting good game in very few and very restricted periods of time. Ilissiakos found the motive it needed in its opponents stature, was enhanced with courage provided from great shooting range and the result was initial score 5-0 (1’20’’), to flex to 5-5 (2’15’’), the greens competing behind Antonis Fotsis who started off in the zone and remained in that mentality got all the way up to 14-7 (5’30’’), but the guests drew and at first quarter buzzer were up by 4 (20-24). Tepic picked up the slack game recommencing (22-24, 10’20’’), however Ilissiakos almost perfect at shooting and feisty as ever in defence, pulled a partial 18-9 score and found itself in pole position with a very convenient 11 point cushion (31-42, 18’). The greens tried to cut into the trail and managed to do it ultimately exploiting the peripheral shot, to catch their visitors to a single point a shadow at the break (41-42).
Panathinaikos improved its defence. Zeljko Obradovic returning for the locker rooms threw into action Diamantidis, Nicholas, Sato, Fotsis and Batiste and soon he saw his boys regain the games reigns (43-42, 20’50’’) for the first time since 19-17 at 8’45’’, Batiste and Sato provided +9 an edge (55-46, 24’), the greens enforcing more and more pressure and managing to take advantage of fast break status, managing to get to their first double digits lead at 27’ (59-48) and then all the way up to +17 (67-50, 29’30’’) praise to an attempt of Fotsis. Nicholas having been in the groove for quite a while, drained 5 consecutive points to get the clover to +20 (72-52, 31’15’’), Ilissiakos managed to close the gap again, heaved it down to +13 (77-64, 35’10’’), Panathinaikos counteracted to fly ahead by 21 (85-64, 37’45’’), only for curtains to fall at final score of the eve 88-71.
Referees: Goumas, Georgiadis, Anastopoulos Adr.
Quarters: 20-24, 41-42, 67-52, 88-71
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 8, Perperoglou 5, Batiste 13, Fotsis 23, Sato 5, Nicholas 18, Tsartsaris 5, Diamantidis 7, Vougioukas 3, Calathes 1
Ilissiakos (Flevarakis): Kapiniaris, Karidas, Webb 3, Kiritsis 17, Hatzis 12, Papantoniou 6, Kanonidis 1, Koukoulas 6, Todic 2, Kasselakis 4, Baxter 10, Dawson 10
*Panathinaikos had Kostas Kaimakglou sidelined for the second game in a row (hamstring strain), whilst Aleks Maric still remains absent also.
