First title step for Olympiakos with Gustafsson as driver

The first of the three steps required to defend his title was taken by Olympic. In the first game of her finals series Women’s A1 prevailed 76-69 of Panathinaikou in Hall 5 of the SEF and made it 2-1 in the series (which started at 1-1, based on regular season results).

THE Megan Gustafson made the difference for the “red and white” with 24 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists, followed by Angeliki Nikolopoulou with 13 points and 7 rebounds and Anna-Niki Stamolambrou with 11 points. A black spot was the departure of Evina Stamatis with a sprain in the second period.

THE Eleanna Christinaki with 24 points and 5 rebounds he stood out from the “greens”, while Katerina Sotiriou had 11 and Arika Carter 15 points.

The second final will take place on Thursday, March 30, at 18:30 at “Pavlos Giannakopoulos”, as the Final 4 of the Cup takes place on March 24 and 26, with the participation of Panathinaikos (who eliminated Olympiakos in the quarter-finals).

The match

Olympiacos entered the match strongly and by “hitting” Gustafson near the basket with an axis, they took the lead 11-5, however, with a series of three-pointers from Christinakis, Pavlopoulos and Sotiropoulos, Panathinaikos overtook, 13-16. The “red and white” reacted and with a basket by the American center in the exhalation they closed the quarter at 20-18. The home team went up 10, 28-18, with Stamati’s three-pointer in the first two minutes of the second period, but Stamati’s departure with a sprain (when she stepped on an opponent’s foot), with the score at 32-28, four minutes before halftime influenced Olympiakos. With pluralism in the attack and high percentages in three-pointers (7/13), Panathinaikos overtook (36-37), but the unstoppable Gustafsson wrote the epilogue in the half as well, 38-37.

Christinaki’s second three-pointer in the match gave a new green lead (39-40), but Olympiacos, with Gustafson firmly in the lead, regained the reins. Taking advantage of the green miss, he reached 54-50 with a three-pointer by Ayuso and closed the quarter at +5, 56-51. At the beginning of the fourth period, the team of Thanos Niklas reached +7 (58-51, 61-54) with boyish baskets from Gustafson and Nikolopoulou. Christinaki was fighting to keep Panathinaikos alone in the match (64-60), however Olympiacos with a 10-2 was separated with 74-62 and “cleaned” the match. Long shots from Carter and Christinaki (74-69) just kept some interest until the last minute.

Ten minutes: 20-18, 38-37, 56-51, 76-69

See here the statistics of the match

Referees: Somos, Theodoropoulos, Agrafiotis