Panathinaikos downed Kavala by 90-51 at the OAKA indoors arena and sealed its ticket to the Greek Cup final.
In the first five minutes Kavala withstood whatever Panathinaikos had to throw at it. The “Greens” led by 7-2 (2’34’’), the guests retorted and made the score 7-9 (4’20’’), but at this point it was high time for the comeback to begin. A 20-0 run from the “clover” turned the score 27-9 (11’) with David Logan scoring half the points of this run in every way imaginable: three-pointers, two-pointers, layups, and dunks. Fatigue had started to take its toll on Dimitris Priftis’ team, which had a nine-player lineup, and saw O’Bryant and Georgakis committing three and four fouls, respectively, during the first half. The score difference rose to 24 points (35-11, 14’40’’) with Pat Calathes marking four points in a row. Kavala made an effort, cut closer to the score (38-19, 17’), and halftime ended by 46-25.
The scale had already tipped to the winner’s side …halfway through. Zeljko Obradovic proceeded by bringing different lineups into play, with his players not taking the pace down even by a notch, and the margin stretching even further to reach a 36-point lead (70-34) by the end of the third quarter. At 34’55’’ and while the score was already 76-40 (34’30’’) an incident between Vougioukas and O’Bryant led the referees to expelling both players all the way to the locker-rooms. The score difference had reached the 40-point mark (84-44 (38’30’’) by Aleks Maric’s hands, before the final score of 90-51 appeared on the scoreboard at the sound of the final buzzer.
Referees: Tavoulareas, Kaldiris, Tsonos V.
By quarter: 22-9, 46-25, 70-34, 90-51
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Maric 8, Perperoglou 2, Logan 14, Sato 7, Calathes P. 10, Tsartsaris 2, Diamantidis 11, Vougioukas 13, Calathes N. 10, Kyritsis 1, Kaimakoglou 9, Jasikevicius 3
Kavala (Priftis): Karapostolou 12, Simtsak, Arapis, Angelopoulos 6, O’Bryant 6, Taylor 9, Stefanidis 13, Georgakis, Kostov 5
*Mike Batiste and Steven Smith were not included in the twelve-player lineup for today’s game.
*The Greek Cup final will be conducted on Saturday, March 10. Panathinaikos is waiting to find out its opponent that will emerge from tomorrow’s game between Olympiakos and PAOK.
*Panathinaikos’ victory over Kavala by a 39-point lead was the sixth broadest margin in the history of the Greek Cup. Panathinaikos had also prevailed by a 39-point lead over AGOR in the 2007 Greek Cup final (87-48). The broadest score difference remains at a 63-point lead marked against Anatolia in 1978 (75-138).
