Panathinaikos made the first big step. It snatched the win at the Stadium of Peace and Friendship from home-team Olympiakos hence taking over home-court advantage thus OAKA stadium to which the series will be transferred in order for game 2 of the HEBA league finals to be held on Sunday (May 29, 2200h-LT).
Panathinaikos trailed after tip-off. The hosts managed to lead even by 11-4 (5’25’’), Bouroussis and Teodosic go-to-guys of the hour, the greens already tallying 4 turnovers during the equivalent period of time. The gap was closed momentarily (11-8 at 6’15’’, 13-10 at 7’08’’), seeing that home-team got to counteract getting up by 9 (21-12, 9’20’’), first quarter ending at 21-15. Aleks Maric stepped up to provide his team with solutions, gathering boards and scoring for Panathinaikos (8 points in 5’36’’) opposing teams now standing only 2 points apart (23-21, 12’40’’) only for the reds to remount a 6 point cushion (29-23, 16’05’’). Panathinaikos in the last few minutes of the first half seemed to find solutions well aspired under the bucket, managing actually to lead for the first time on the floor at 18’50’’ (30-32) and then again slightly later at 19’10’’ (32-34) the refs awarding Teodosic next with a three-point trip to the charity line, the Serbian guard scoring to 35-34, fashion in which teams headed to the locker rooms for the recess.
The clover climbed to a +3 edge (38-41, 21’50’’ performing behind Diamantidis and Maric. Personal foul number 1 for Milos Teodosic at 24’45’’ allowed Panathinaikos to a new offense, Mike Batiste getting to the line to fix the score at 41-44 (25’), the aforementioned big man copying his actions even further to 41-46 (25’27’’). The American center actually added even more to 43-48 (27’), his teammates continuing to feed him the ball in the paint. Aleks Maric’s 4th personal foul, after him making 45-50 (28’), got Ian Vougioukas on the field for the first time in the clash, Kostas Kaimakoglou having been thrown into battle slightly earlier. The latter threatened posting up Papaloukas only to build a sweet 7 point cushion (49-56, 29’40’’), the quarter sealing at 51-56. Score 51-58 formed off the efforts of Drew Nicholas (31’45’’), became 57-58 (32’30’’). The American guard made his second good field goal in the matchup and Dimitris Diamantidis joined forces with him to jog the score to 61-66 (35’), while praise to an assist off the captain, Nick Calathes scored to 63-68 (36’20’’). Home-team drew at 68-68 (37’50’’). Antonis Fotsis drained a nothing-but-net trifecta from the top of the arch to 68-71 (38’30’’). Papaloukas picked up the slack (70-71, 38’36’’). Diamantidis made free throws to 70-73, 43’’ pending in the game, having drawn a foul from Yannis Bouroussis. Teodosic missed a three at the other end of the court, Mike Batiste gathered the rebound, 27’’ to go on the floor. Batiste drew a foul, went 1-for-2 from the line getting the score board to read 70-74. Papaloukas failed to score on the fast break, Milenko Tepic rebounded the ball into the green’s possession 16’’6 left, Diamantidis took another trip to the line to score 1-for-2 for final game score 70-75, Antonis Fotsis rising to annul air-born Vassilis Spanoulis’s intention to score in the final play of the evening.
Referees: Schinas, Anastopoulos, Somos
Quarters: 21-15, 35-34, 51-56, 70-75
OOlympiakos (Ivkovic): Papaloukas 9, Gordon 7, Spanoulis 12, Printezis 2, Bouroussis 14, Keselj, Mavrokefalidis 8, Halperin, Papanikolaou, Erceg 4, Teodosic 14
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 4, Maric 14, Batiste 13 (6rbs), Fotsis 5, Sato 4, Nicholas 4, Tsartsaris, Diamantidis 21 (9as, 5rbs), Vougioukas 2, Calathes 6, Kaimakoglou 2, Bogris
Obradovic: “Intriguing sequence”
Zeljko Obradovic, as all Panathinaikos members kept his statements low key after the 1-0 versus Olympiakos after the win at the SEF arena. And talked of an intriguing sequence.
“Tonight’s encounter was very similar to the three previous ones amongst the two teams”, Head Coach of Panathinaikos stressed only to add: “Both teams were irritated and nervous. At the beginning of the game we were very nervous and committed unacceptable mistakes. A fact for which Olympiakos’s defense is also responsible for. In this game, as in all three previous ones, the winner was defined in the last two minutes of the encounter. The sequence will be very intriguing. I would also like to congratulate the fans of Olympiakos for the atmosphere they created. I call upon our fans to create a nice atmosphere in the OAKA stadium at the second final”.
Next to Obradovic, Kostas Kaimakoglou, a key player of the encounter at the stadium of Peace and Friendship: “Tonight’s game was the most important one. It was a tough clash and we managed to gain an important win and steal our opponent’s home-court advantage. We committed a victory but we have achieved nothing yet. We need three wins in order to win the championship, not one. For us, it functions as a bell, the fact that Olympiakos beat us at our home-court in the regular season”.
Head Coach for Olympiakos, Dusan Ivkovic, stated: “It was a tough game, as the others versus Panathinaikos. Only that we did not play as we usually do at our home-court. Panathinaikos was a better team and wanted to win more than us. It was a great opponent, but greater opponent for us was anxiety. We left gaps in our defense. Our opponent had 58% in twos and we had 38% and with such a percent we only had 11 offensive rebounds. Moreover we received easy baskets, we were not focused, Maric scored 14 points in only 10 minutes. In the second and third quarter we lost control over the game. In the end we called upon our most experienced players but the game was defined the moment we found our pace. Panathinaikos got a fair win. On Sunday we will play good basketball without stress”.
Lukas Mavrokefalidis was the Olympiakos player to attend the press conference.: “Nothing ends today. Panathinaikos made 1-0 more than fairly. It deserved to win. But it did not win the championship. There is a sequence. We must raze our heads at look towards game 2 of the series”.
Welcome
The delegation of Panathinaikos from the SEF arena headed to the hotel on the Attica road
At which it had retreated. And there, even though the time was quite late and the distance was of a certain amount, friends of the team awaited the players and the technical staff in order to send them off, setting a date for game 2 of the series at the OAKA arena on Sunday
