Panathinaikos prevailed by 84-72 over Aris in the OAKA indoors arena in the HEBA Championship opening game, which took place without fans.
From the beginning of the game David Logan put Panathinaikos in the lead (3-0), with Aris trying to respond and actually managing to do that, by making the score 3-4 at 1’30’’ and then 10-13 at 6’50’’. From that point on, however, the “Greens” had the first and last word in the game. They took back the lead and never lost it until the final buzzer. The score margin got to double digits a little after the 15’ (33-22) by means of David Logan; Aris closed in to eight points again (39-31, 19’), only to see the gap between the two teams grow larger, with the score soaring to +18 after the end of the third period (67-49, 30’). At the end, Panathinaikos won by 84-72.
Referees: Afentoulidis – Poursanidis G. – Tsounas
By quarter: 21-16, 41-31, 67-49, 84-72
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Maric 9, Batiste 6, Logan 11, Sato 13, Tsartsaris 2, Diamantidis 3, Vourgioukas 13, Calathes N. 4, Kyritsis 1, Smith 7, Kaimakoglou 8, Jasikevicius 4
Aris (Alexandris): Mavroeidis 7, Kerusch 6, Tapoutos 12, James 7, Tsairelis 6, Oliver 7, Krusic 11, Bochoridis, Muldrow 5, Verginis 11, Dimas, Vezenkov
Obradovic: It’s difficult to play in an empty arena
Panathinaikos clinched victory from Aris in the HEBA Championship opening game, with Zeljko Obradovic referring to the peculiar circumstances that game too place in, since once again fans were not allowed to attend the arena..
“The good news is that we began playing for the championship too. The bad news is that we began playing without our fans. Competing in an empty arena is the worst possible thing for basketball in general. Any other penalty would be better than that. Despite having done everything to provide motivation to our players, it has been difficult. Aris was very good in its game, very serious about it, even though it was done under difficult circumstances precisely due to the absence of fans. It is difficult to say anything else. Congratulations to Aris for the way they played.”
Ian Vougioukas seemed to share his coach’s viewpoint: “We came in after a good performance against Unicaja Málaga for the Euroleague competition. We were feeling well; but it is always difficult to play without the fans. Today against Aris, which is a serious team, we showed some good elements, but we also had some turnovers, lost some rebounds; these are things that we need to work on in order to improve for the next games.”
Aris’ coach, Vangelis Alexandris, had problems and “complaints” of his own, aside of the fact that the game was conducted without fans: “I wish all of us a great basketball season… These are important and peculiar times that we are experiencing in Greece right now and is certainly affecting people’s disposition. It takes courage to withstand it. Speaking purely about basketball I will say that when I watched the Panathinaikos – Unicaja Málaga game I got worried seeing Panathinaikos’ performance and how well they were playing given the time period in which we are at. The postponement of the championship opening game helped us since, after the Greek Cup game against Olympiakos, we had more days to work. In that game, James and Krusic played having only had one practice session. Today we wanted to have a more competitive performance, knowing that Panathinaikos too would be tired after the Euroleague game. So, we did not hide: we came out and played exactly as we wanted to play. I must say that I am satisfied with the effort that my guys did. We committed some turnovers that we could have avoided, but on the other hand I am satisfied with the overall performance we have had, as well as the 18 assists we made. This is something that makes me have an optimistic outlook to the future games, given that we are three players short of our original planning. When these three are incorporated into the team we will be much better.”
Alexandris was asked about the fact that Aris drove all the way to Athens: “We are the club’s employees; even if they ask us to ride a bicycle all the way to the away game arena, we will do that. But this attitude is beneath the worth of a department that has brought so many titles to the club. These players are really tall guys and driving them by bus is really uncomfortable for them. We had to take many stops on our way here in order for them to get off the bus and stretch their legs a bit; not to mention the way back…. I would rather we did not have to relive that! Personally, in my 16 years as player, 21 years as A1-Division coach and 2 years as A2-Division coach, I have never experienced that!”
Dimitris Verginis pointed out: “We knew beforehand that we would have a difficult task to accomplish against Panathinaikos, the European champion, but I believe that we have managed to have a good performance; clearly better than the one we had in the game against Olympiakos. We are working hard in the practice sessions and I believe that this became apparent on the court today. There is leeway for improvement… At times today too we played well as a whole and did justice to the term “team”, but we have a long way ahead of us. I am optimistic about the rest of the competition, and so are my team-mates and coach.”
*Tomorrow, Panathinaikos begins its preparation for the game against KK Zagreb in the context of the Euroleague 2nd competition date.
