Panathinaikos nailed the victory it was after on a road game at the indoor stadium of Nea Smirni. It downed Panionios 75-61, Drew Nicholas to watch the game sidelined on the bench, after the ankle sprain he suffered in the fourth Euroleague play-off encounter across from rival Barcelona .
The first quarter was a balanced game, Panathinaikos unraveling however an outbreak to get up by 7 (7-14, 4’45’’) behind a pair of interceptions, to run on to the fast break. Panionios though, investing in defense and rebounds had great connections when finishing up around the basket an managed to come back in the battle field to actually lead by 3 at the end of the quarter (23-20). The home-team had under no circumstances decided to give up the fight. On the contrary; they continued to enforce pressure, but Panathinaikos managed to get to the solutions it needed in rebounding department, the accumulated stats of assists rose dramatically, the clover run the open field on to fast-breaks getting to easy buckets resulting in it regaining the games reigns climbing all the way up to +8 (30-38, 18’), prior to intermission finding the score board reading 36-41 off an attempt behind Covile.
The greens got back up by 8 yet again (38-46 at 23’25’’, 40-48 at 25’) and slightly later, Stratos Perperoglou unleashing a three, the gap expanded to 9 points (42-51, 26’10’’). Stelios Ioannou undertook the assignment to pick up the slack getting consecutive range up to 46-51 (27’20’’) and Covile manage to bring Panionios within 3 points (48-51, 28’). From 26’10’’ Panathinaikos scored again off a charity shot by Sato at 29’28’’ (48-52), Tsiaras making 2-for-2 from the line to 50-52 (29’48’’).
Return to the floor resituated the gap at its 8 point marker (50-58, 32’45’’), Milenko Tepic drilling a triple to +10 (53-63, 35’), then proceeding to connect fabulously with Tsartsaris to 53-65 (36’). Sato heaved in a pair of three pointers to +17 (56-73, 38’) only for the game to end behind final score 61-75.
Referees: Bitis, Goumas, Nikoloulis
Quarters: 23-20, 36-41, 50-52, 61-75
Panionios (Bartzokas): Anderson 16, Athanassoulas 2, Giannopoulos, Tsiaras 9, Athineou, Batis 3, Jankovic 2, Ioannou 10, Covile 8, Paragios 7, Barlos 4
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 6, Maric, Perperoglou 8, Batiste 6, Fotsis 7, Sato 16 (6rbs), Tsartsaris 9, Diamantidis 3, Vougioukas 10, Calathes 7 (4as), Kaimakoglou 3
