Panathinaikos was unable to gain a road win at the SEF arena for a second time hence final score 76-68 versus home-team Olympiacos. The series is now transferred yet again to the OAKA arena, Sunday June 5th, 2011.
Both teams went for an aggressive opening, Yannis Bouroussis being Zeljko Obradovic’s main headache during this period of time. Up to minute 5’ team went neck and neck score at 9-8 but Olympiacos went for an offensive streak the same time that Panathinaikos performed stressed out when appealing the basket. The aforementioned red international Greek center was on a great night, aided mainly in offense by Spanoulis and Mavrokefalidis, home team to lead by 22-14 at 9’, Mike Batiste not being able to perform his game due to great defense on him. All this resulted in first quarter to rest at 24-19. The hosts continued to dominate at the beginning of the second quarter (26-11), coach Obradovic committing swap after swap trying to establish the appropriate five behind which his team would perform best on the floor. Tsartsaris and Nicholas to the aid of the battle seemed to do the trick, seeing that defense for the greens regrouped more pleasingly, Ian Vougioukas chipping in immensely in the particular department at the time.
The greens got pace in offense raise to a three off Nicholas to tie the score 26-26 at 13’, only to break away by 29-33 at 15’, getting game on the floor. Olympiacos tried to counteract (34-33) but response came immediately off the hands of Ian Vougioukas to 34-37 (17’), only for the intermission to arrive, score at 39-46, the clover performing in frontcourt mainly behind Mike Batiste’s efforts. Neither team seemed to be able to score at the begging of the second part, Olympiacos however getting more solutions in offense praise to Printezis and Bouroussis thus managing to creep up on its guest to 46-48 at 25’ and 49-51 at 26’30’’, Zeljko Obradovic making use of a time-out at the very moment in time. Panathinaikos however did not manage to improve many things in its game, still performing behind bad range and bad offensive choices, only for its opponent to exploit both elements to lead by 54-53 at 29’ and 58-56 at third quarter buzzer. The visitors managed thanks to tight defense to regain the lead to 58-63 at 32’. Frontcourt though still remained its bad area as turnover after turnover provided Olympiacos with prime time opportunities to get game (61-63, 34’). Diamantidis drilled a three to offer a breather to his team (61-66) but home-team answer was immediate Pelekanos draining a three to get his team back on top (68-66) 4 minutes prior to final buzzer, Obradovic to yet again call a time-out. A pair of free throws gave the reds a 6 point cushion 2’30’’ pending on the clock (72-66) only for Printezis to put the final nail in the greens coffin one minute prior to shut down. Final game score 76-68.
Quarters: 24-19, 39-46, 58-56, 76-68
Referees: Gontas, Koromilas, Afentoulidis
Olympiacos (Ivkovic): Spanoulis 13, Bouroussis 16, Halperin 4, Gordon 6, Mavrokefalidis 7, Papanikolaou , Glyniadakis 6, Teodosic 5, Papaloukas , Erceg 5, Printezis 8, Pelekanos 6
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 2, Maric 4, Batiste 15, Fotsis 5, Sato 2, Nicholas 13, Tsartsaris 4, Diamantidis 10, Vougioukas 9, Calathes 4, Bogris, Kaimakoglou
