Panathinaikos had no trouble versus AEK. It overcame 111-70 in the postponed encounter for day 22 of the Greek League at the OAKA arena.
The game was a done deal quite early, Panathinaikos cruising ahead by a substantial cushion and Zeljko Obradovic having cleared off the bench already by 14’, having only Nicholas sidelined (sprain). The greens pulled a 14-0 run to go from 9-6 (4’) to 23-6 (8’30’’), exploiting every single chance to run the fast break, getting to consecutive easy baskets, offering a great deal of show time moments. At 16’ the home-team double scored its visitor (48-24) praise to a bucket from Mike Batiste. At this point AEK performed a mini outbreak closing the gap (48-33, 17’), only for Kostas Tsartsaris to drill a three to 51-33 (18’), Stratos Perperoglou to follow (53-33, 18’25’’), intermission finding the score board reading 56-38.
Second part of the clash came into session behind a Romain Sato crescendo, who jogged the score to 72-43 (24’50’’), Aleks Marci being passed the torch all the way up to +30 (76-46, 26’20’’) and then some to +32 (78-46, 26’50’’). The gap peaked at +39 (87-48) at 29’20’’ thanks to a partial 15-3 streak (72-45 at 26’), third quarter scoring resting at 87-50. A couple of free throws behind Kostas Tsartsaris provided a 40 point cushion (92-52, 32’25’’). Kaimakoglou was the centurion scorer as he broke the 100 point marker (101-65, 37’), final score set by Milenko Tepic at 111-70.
Referees: Kaldiris, Theonas, Tarenidis
Quarters: 31-10, 56-38, 87-50, 111-70
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 9 (5rbs, 6as), Maric 15, Perperoglou 11, Batiste 4, Fotsis 6, Sato 14, Tsartsaris 8, Diamantidis 6 (5as), Vougioukas 4 (5as), Calathes 6, Kaiamakoglou 22 (6rbs), Zoubos 6
AEK (Koronios): Castle 2, Kohaderevic 6, Nikolaidis 8, Papanikolaou 10, Hart 7, Dikoudis 8, Dorkofikis 11, Antonakis, Kallinikidis 3, Curry 10, Madic 5, Tzolos
Game 400
The encounter amongst Panathinaikos and AEK was game 400 for Zeljko Obradovic at the bench of the clover in the HEBA League. The game which hosted him first at the Panathinaikos bench was back in 1999, September 26th at home versus Near East (79-54). Obradovic has coached the greens for a total of 704 games in all three leagues, Euroleague, Greek League and Greek Cup.
Obradovic: “Now all important issues commence”
The press conference held after the clash of Panathinaikos versus AEK might very likely have been the shortest of all other in the season. Obradovic nevertheless spoke with nothing but praises of his players.
“What I witnessed today was 12 players with great will to play and enjoy the game. They all had great performances and are all worthy of congratulations. I constantly state that every player is important. Across from Barcelona we used certain players more than others. But it is all about team work and I had stated it in the future. Even they who competed shortly, helped. Also, it was obvious that in the game versus Panionios certain players were very tired. Today things were different. We worked on the game for two days and now we have repos until Saturday. After that we will start to work hard. Now the most important issues of the season commence. Up to now, all that has been done has been done well…”
Finally in reference of Drew Nicholas, he stated: “The medical staff is who should be making statement about this issue. I am waiting upon them and my player to tell me if he is ready to get into practice. With or without him, we will have to face Olympiakos”.
Aleks Maric added another great performance to his career and was quite happy about it: “We had set certain goals in our game and I think we managed to achieve them for the entire 40 minutes of game time. We followed our coach’s instructions in order to achieve them. To be sidelined for such a long time and to return is not only a physical challenge, in order for one to be able to return to normal levels. It is also a mental challenge. Everything starts in one’s mind, but with the help of teammates and my coaches I managed to return”, stated the center of the clover.
AEK Head Coach, Angelos Koronios noted: “They is no need for me to make any kind of an analysis of the game. Panathinaikos and Olympiakos are playing in a league of their own in contrast to all the other teams which are facing issues and trying simply to compete. It is not something I like, personally but I must accept it”.
Terrell Castle from his point of view said: “We came to face Panathinaikos, a clearly better team than us. We had a plan… to contain them at less than 70 points. We committed many mistakes but there is more up ahead for us, since we must fight in order to remain in the league”.
