A determined one Panathinaikos… he touched the break in SEF, but his own mistakes gave him Olympic the opportunity to take the first step in the finals of the Basket League, prevailing 73-70.
The “red and white” had control of the derby for three quarters, entering the fourth with +13 (61-48). In the last period, the “greens” made their counterattack and got even the lead (65-66), at 38′. However, an unnecessary foul by Agravanis at the end of the attack on Walkap “unstuck” the Piraeus, who regained control and with great composure in the… roulette of shots they reached in their 14th straight win them on the “eternal” rival in all competitions.
Vezenkov leads the way for Olympiakos with 20 points (of which 16 points in the first quarter and 7 rebounds), with Walkap adding 13 points. and Sloukas 12p.
From the “clover”, Grigonis and Lee stood out with 17p. and 14p. respectively, with the American handing out 8 assists.
The match
Olympiacos started with Fal, Vezenkov, Papanikolaou, Luntzis and Walkap, while Panathinaikos started with Papagiannis, Mantzoukas, P. Kalaitzakis, Grigonis and Lee. Explosive start from the “red and whites” on both sides of the floor with the orexatus Vezenkov and Luntzis sending them to +12 (14-2, in the first four minutes. On the other hand, the “greens” had a lot of difficulty getting into the racket, with Grigonis and Lee scoring some baskets with personal actions. The Piraeus continued at the same pace and with points in the open court with the Bulgarian forward escaped to +16 (26-10), at 8′. In the last minutes, the “clover » got back-to-back offensive rebounds and with Grigonis it was reduced to 26-14 at the end of the first period.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Panathinaikos became more pressing in defense, forced Olympiakos into mistakes and with baskets in the open field reduced the difference to single digits (28-19) at 12′. The derby continued at a low tempo, with the “red and whites” responding with defenses, with Boloboi and Sluka leading them to +12 (33-21), at 15′. However, Barzoka’s players started to make unforced errors again, completely losing their rhythm. This was taken advantage of by the guests, where they took advantage of their second chances and made individual scores 3-10 (36-31), until 19′. In the remaining time, Piraeus found solutions with Slouka and Boloboi again and thus went to the locker room with +8 (41-33).
Panathinaikos made a very good start in the second half as well and with Gudaitis and Li Orexatus offensively ran a 9-0 run, getting closer to the point (41-40), at 22′. Afterwards, Olympiacos started to press in defense, finding rhythm in attack and spoiling that of the “greens”, who were trying hard with individual talent. Thus, Bartzoka’s team took control and, running in the open field, escaped again to +10 (56-46), in the 27th minute. From that point on, the Piraeus had brought the derby to their… feet and thus closed the third period at +13 (61-48).
Panathinaikos started the fourth quarter with good ball circulation in the attack and with a more “clear” mind and with Ponitka leading the way, they ran individual scores of 1-8 (62-56), until the 34th minute. Fal scored the first field goal of the “red and white” in the fourth period, for +7 (65-58). However, the “greens” continued their very good defense, the Piraeus were static in the attack with tragic and misguided choices and thus with the three points of Ponitka and Grigonis, the visitors went ahead (65-66), in the 38th minute. The Piraeus team responded with Walkup and Fall for +3 (69-66), with Papagiannis making a follow-up nail and bringing the derby to a point (69-68), at 39′. This was followed by 2/2 shots by Sluka for the new +3 (71-68) and an error by Grigonis. The home guard missed a three-pointer, with Grigonis going to the line for shots, making it 2/2 (71-70), at 6.9”. Slukas then went 2/2 again from the line, with Lee missing a 3-pointer on the breather and Olympiakos taking the final 73-70 victory.
The quarters: 26-14, 41-33, 61-48, 73-70
See the match statistics here
Watch the film of the match here
Source: Sport Fm
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