After a particularly eventful game that was sealed after an almost twenty-minute break suspension and a decision to evacuate the arena, Panathinaikos defeated Panionio by 82-81 at the Nea Smyrmi indoors arena. Mike Batiste stamped and sealed victory with 3’’ remaining ‘till the final buzzer.
The first two quarters of the game were characterized by absolute contradiction. Panathinaikos appeared to be inefficient in both offense and defense against Panionios, which got very powerful into the game. It was successful in both two-point shots and free throws, won the rebounding fight and managed to lead by 10 points (16-6, 5’) and got a twelve-point lead by the end of the quarter (25-13). The “Greens” seemed to lack willpower and got themselves trailing behind in the score. The second quarter was as if we were watching an entirely different game. The “Greens” put their feet down on the accelerator hard, had absolute domination on all levels, cut down on their turnovers, got the rebounds, collaborated much better in offense, and with Diamantidis – Perperoglou taking initiatives reached a 2-22 run that gave them an eight-point lead (27-35, 13’50’’). The “clover” kept up the pace, got help from Sarunas Jasikevicius and Ian Vougioukas too, Kaimakoglou put up some powerful fights and won them, and the two teams got to halftime with Panathinaikos leading by 11 points (35-46), fully reversing the situation that had been shaped in the first quarter.
The second half of the game continued on what had been shaped up until then. Panionios was trying to get close to the score, kept nibbling away its deficit from Panathinaikos, which in turn kept picking up the tempo again with the help of defense and kept bringing the score margin back up to double digits. The “Greens” reached a fifteen-point lead (43-58, 28’), kept a safety distance from the “red-blues” with seven consecutive points by Romain Sato boosting the lead to +17 (59-76, 36’10’’) and the home team making a last ditch effort to return to the game. In that effort they found an ally in a refereeing decision that assessed Dimitris Diamantidis with a technical foul, while Kavvadas had already drawn a foul against him. Panionios center made the score 74-79 with 34’’ left on the clock, Keys succeeded in ½ free throws making it 75-79, and Diebler cut as close as just a single point (78-79) with one of his three-pointers with 26’’5 remaining until the end of the game. At this point, referees and officials alike left the court, as objects were dropped inside the court area, and a little later asked that the arena be evacuated in order for the game to continue. Upon returning on court, Jasikevicius succeeded in a free throw (78-80), Panionios won the offensive rebound after Xanthopoulos missed a shot and Barlos succeeded in his own making the score 81-80 with 8’’ remaining, only for Mike Batiste to come in and add a shot of his own making the score 81-82.
Referees: Manos – Psarianos – Pantazis
By quarter: 25-13, 35-46, 51-61, 81-82
Panionios (Bartzokas): Xanthopoulos 10, Keys 11, Athanasoulas, Stephenson 7, Diebler 11, Kavvadas 8, Ioannou 5, Sarikopoulos 3, Nadjfeji 9, Paragios 3, Barlos 14
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Perperoglou 15, Batiste 11, Logan 4, Sato 7, Tsartsaris 2, Diamantidis 14, Vougioukas 9, Calathes Ν. 4, Smith, Kaimakoglou 6, Jasikevicius 10
