Panathinaikos swept PAOK. Final game score 105-65 and 3-0 in the semis of the HEBA league play-offs leads on to the finals with the greens concentrating on injured of the eve Stratos Perperoglou.
A feisty PAOK seemed to take Panathinaikos by surprise in the first minutes breaking away from tip-off by 5 (9-14, 7’). The last three minutes however of the quarter was all Panathinaikos’s game. An 11-0 run flexed the score to 20-14, score behind which teams headed to the locker rooms, only for the greens to miount double score at 13-50’’ (32-16).
Slightly later though an incident would occur to freeze the entire stadium. Stratos Perperoglou dived to the floor in order to challenge the ball, Yannakidis fell on top of Panathinaikos’s forward that fell to the ground in agony grasping his shoulder. Perperoglou headed to the locker rooms accompanied by his teammates, the technical staff and the friends of the team terrified for the worst. He was taken to the health institute “Ygeia” in order to undergo examinations. The game continued Kostas Kaimakoglou forming 41-27 score, fashion in which the first half of the clash concluded.
Mike Batiste primarily Romain Sato on the ensuing game led to +21 game recommencing (52-31, 24’). Aleks Maric upped the ante to +23 (64-41, 28’), Kaimakoglou maintaining the gap at the same level at the fulfillment of the third quarter (69-46). Tepic and Calathes were passed the torch up to +29 (77-48, 31’50’’). The prior sent the edge over 30 points first (79-48, 32’30’’). Kaimakoglou expanded the gap even further (+32, 93-61, 37’) behind a more than impressive slam dunk, Tepic followed his lead to +34 (95-61, 37’20’’), while by dishing the ball to Calathes the game reached 99-63 (38’25’’). Centurion bucket was drilled by Aleks Maric (101-65, 39’). Serbian connection amongst Tepic and Maric marked final score 105-65, Panathinaikos focusing only on the HEBA championship finals.
Referees: Karakatsounis, Goumas, Poursanidis G.
Quarters: 20-14, 41-27, 69-46, 105-65
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 11 (5as), Maric 13 (5rbs, 4stls), Perperoglou, Batiste 8, Fotsis 5, Sato 9, Nicholas 10, Tsartsaris 11, Diamantidis 10, Vougioukas 4, Calathes 12, Kaimakoglou 12 (5rbs)
PAOK (Markopouloas): Christmas 16, Apostolidis 7, Dozier 10, Stiggers 6, Buljan 11, Yannakidis 9, Kalles 2, Gecevski 4, Kalabakas
Perperoglou’s injury
Stratos Perperoglou was submitted to a magnetic tomography at the health institute “Ygeia” and received a clear diagnosis.
The Panathinaikos forward suffered a stretch to his left shoulder during the encounter versus PAOK, at minute 18 for the third semi of the HEBA league 2010-11 play0offs series. He will undergo treatment followed by medication and his situation will be re-established at a later hour.
Press Conference
Zeljko Obradovic didn’t have much to say in the press conference, the Serbian coach stated pleased only from his team’s performance during the second half. “We performed two different halves. During the first we showed no kind of will to play basketball. It is all too obvious for one to understand why. We played too slow”, Panathinaikos’s Head Coach stated initially only to add: “In the second half we changed. We had 25 assist in 20 minutes game time. That’s basketball for you. And if someone checks out the stats, Perperoglou and Fotsis who did not perform for a long while were the only two without any assists. To be honest we did not play with much motivation, the same thing goes for PAOK which performed missing Marshal who is a great player. We nailed 3-0 and we steer our attention towards the finals”, he stressed.
Milenko Tepic noted: “We didn’t play well in Thessaloniki and we wanted to improve our performance today. I think we achieved it, mostly in the second half. It was important for us to sweep the semis 3-0 in order to be as prepared as possible for Olympiakos. We are ready to play as well in the finals and if we continue as so we have many chances to conquer the championship. I hope Perperoglou’s injury is not too serious so as he will be able to partake in the finals”.
Soulis Markopoulos, Head Coach for PAOK stated: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos for a great performance. It was great and enforced its pressure full court to quite an extent. I am pleased only from certain points at the beginning of the game. In the second half we messed up the image we had created. We received 36 points in a single quarter and seemed not to be present on court. We must improve and exploit on our home-court advantage versus Aris”.
Dozier stressed: “At tip-off we hoped to play good defense and I believe we did quite a good job. In the second half they bettered us in every aspect on the floor. They got to clean shots, made many baskets and the result was only natural. The series is through and now we focus on the series versus Aris; best of luck to Panathinaikos".
