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
Source: Sport Fm
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