He prevailed with his great overthrow Panathinaikou in her third final Women’s A1 and was crowned champion for the 7th time in the history of o Olympic!
Although the “greens” made a fantastic first half with incredible accuracy rates and found themselves leading by as much as 20 points, Olympiacos made the big turnaround in the last two periods, taking the great victory with 87-83 and winning the title, without losing a single one of this year’s finals with his “eternal” rival.
Leading for the triumphant ones Gustafson (22pts, 8 rebs, 5 assists), Saint (21p.) and Nikolopoulou (13 points, 11 assists), while for Panathinaikos they stood out Christinaki (19 points, 10 rebounds), Alexander (14pts, 6 assists) and Carter (14p.).
The match
The match started with Panathinaikos to come in clearly stronger, taking an 8-2 lead. Stamolambrou temporarily reduced for Olympiakos, but the “greens” had terrible shooting percentages, making a double-digit difference (6-16) for the first time in the match, thanks to a layup by her Carter. THE Gustafson reduced to 21-30, while Nikolopoulou with a buzzer-beater three-pointer shaped the 24-33 of the first period.
THE Olympic was left without a basket in the first three minutes of the second period and Panathinaikos took advantage, building a 9-0 run and throwing the difference in their favor to +18 (24-42). With Gustafsson “pulling the oar” aggressively for the hosts, Olympiacos got closer to 10 (40-50), before the guests went to the locker room with a lead of 13 points (42-55), having as their biggest “weapon” their terrible offensive productivity (18/23 two-pointers and 5/9 three-pointers).
The third quarter started with Christinaki and Potter to score for Panathinaikos, making it 42-59, while Pavlopoulou with a three-pointer at the end of the attack time, made the 45-64. Ayouso responded immediately with a three-pointer of her own, while Olympiacos from that point on improved dramatically in offense and defense, taking the momentum and building a 24-8 run, getting within “breathing distance” (69-72) at the end of the quarter, thanks to another three-pointer Saintthis time in dead time!
THE Olympic lost their rhythm in the attack and did not manage to score a single point in the first 2 minutes of the fourth period, while Christinaki with 5 consecutive points of her own gave Panathinaikos a “safety distance” again (69-77). However, the home team tightened their defense again, going ahead for the first time in the game (79-77), with a 10-0 run. Carter tied, but the Spyridopoulou made a big three-pointer for 82-79, Christinaki reduced to a point (82-81), but Olympiacos did not lose its cool, eventually winning with 87-83 and furiously celebrating winning the championship!
The quarters: 24-33, 42-55, 69-72, 87-83
The match statistics
Live of the final from sport-fm.gr
Source: Sport Fm
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