It took some time for Panathinaikos to …warm up and then proceed without being threatened by Ikaros Kallitheas in the “Makis Liougas” Glyfada indoors arena. The final score of 66-95 sealed victory for the “Greens”.
Panathinaikos had it all from the very first minutes. It had good defense, applying pressure that led to steals and then easy baskets, took the rebounds that helped it make the most of every lost shot, had concentration and pace. All of the above led it to breaking away to a double-digit lead relatively early on. A score of 7-9 (5’14’’), turned to 7-17 (6’07’’) with Mike Batiste marking 9 points and Kostas Kaimakoglou the rest in the first quarter. The lead went as much as +12 points (9-21, 7’20’’), before the first quarter ended by 17-27.
The positive elements were maintained by Panathinaikos during the second quarter as well. The “Greens” did not leave much leeway for the home team to react. Gradually and with the contribution of all its players it kept distancing itself from its opponents. They chose to pass the ball to the big guys. Maric and Tsartsaris became the spears of offence, with Nick Calathes arming his gun too to score 10 points in the first half by 2/3 two-pointers and 2/2 three-pointers, the second of them being scored at the end of the second period to turn the score 32-52. It was a period of time in which Panathinaikos had the first say in rebounds (12-18), assists (6-8), and steals (2-5), while at the same time leading its opponents to 13 turnovers.
Ikaros Kallitheas sought solutions mainly through Baynes, who spearheaded the home team’s offence. They did not however manage to do much more than just cut down the score difference to 15 points (37-52, 21’36’’). At the end of the quarter, though, things remained the same: the gap was back to 20 points (49-69).
Thanassis Skourtopoulos’ team had very limited leeway for reaction. Panathinaikos clearly had the upper hand and stretched the lead to up to 31 points (91-60, 38’), before it came time for curtains down by η αυλαία πέσει με το τελικό 66-95.
Referees: Anastopoulos, Diamantis, Pantelidis
By quarter: 17-27, 32-52, 49-69, 66-95
Ikaros Kal. (Skourtopoulos): Skordilis 10, Baxter 11, Koumpouras 8, Karaboulas 6, Polytarchou 2, Tsiaras 2, Vasilievic, Tzialas 1, Baynes 17, Beck 5, Ljubisic 2, Larentzakis 2
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Maric 14, Perperoglou 3, Batiste 15, Logan 5, Sato, Tsartsaris 13, Diamantidis 5, Calathes N. 11, Kyritsis 5, Smith 5, Kaimakoglou 15, Jasikevicius 4
*Panathinaikos competed without Ian Vougioukas who had a sole injury.
