He took the OAKA thriller and with it the home advantage in the Greek championship o Panathinaikos AKTOR!
His team Ergin Ataman led three times by more than 13 points, even reaching the middle of the fourth period even at +15 (76-61), with Olympiakos returning the same number of times to the match, claiming victory in the final.
However, in the end, the “greens” held on counterattack of the “red and white” and thanks to the composure from the shooting line and a key defense by Kalaitzakis in the final, they won the derby with score 85-80 at the packed OAKA for the 15th matchday of the Stoiximan Basket League!
Victory with which the “clover” extended its unbeaten streak in the league (15-0), leaving the “eternal” rival within two wins distance (13-2), thus tightening the home advantage for the third round of the championship and by extension for the finals of the competition.
Leading scorer for the winners, who had five players in double figures, was Jerian Grant with 19 points and 5 assists, with Marius Grigonis (18 points), Kendrick Nunn (16 points) and Dino Mitoglou (13 points, 9 rebounds) to follow in performance, at the time where o Kostas Sloukas left the second period with an injury problem.
For the team of Giorgos Bartzokas, o Philip Petrushev finished the match with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, with Williams-Goss to add 16 points and 7 assists. In addition to the defeat, however, there is great concern in the “red and white” camp regarding him Nikola Milutinov, who retired in the third period with a left ankle strain.
The match:
THE Panathinaikos AKTOR started the game with Grant, Nunn, Grigonis, Mitoglou and Lessor, with Olympic to have Walkup, Keinaan, Papanikolaou, Peters and Milutinov in his starting five. Taking energy from the packed OAKA, the “greens” entered the match extremely well, bringing out tremendous spirit and passion on both ends of the floor. In fact, playing excellent defense early in the first period with them as well Grant and Grigonis to find the way to the opponent’s basket, Panathinaikos took the lead with 18-6 at 5′.
In fact, a little later, Lessor increased the difference at +14 (20-6) with follow-through nailing, setting the field on fire. The entry of Petrusev, Brazdeikis and Williams-Goss on the floor he gave an aggressive “breath” to the “red and whites”, who “gnawed away” at the difference with a 12-3 run in the last three minutes, they closed the period at 23-18.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the guests reduced by 3 (27-24) with the shots of Brazdeikis-Petrusev, but also the three-pointer of Peters. Somewhere there, Kendrick Nunn took action, taking Panathinaikos on his back and building a double-digit lead again. In particular, the American guard scored 13 points within 6 minutes from the beginning of the period, increasing the difference again to +14 for the hosts (40-26) at 16′. Unique black mark for the “greens”, o Sluka’s injury in the middle of the season, who left with a problem in the left adductor.
As in the first quarter, so here too, Olympiacos did not “chew” on the fact that the difference got away quite a bit, with its players Giorgos Bartzokas to make a reaction and collect the score. Specifically, with them Petrushev and Williams-Goss to score 6 points each and to provide solutions at the back of the floor as well, the “red and white” succeeded and gnawed the difference in the basket, with Panathinaikos going to the locker room for the half time in front of the score with 44-42.
In the third quarter, Panathinaikos came into the game very strongly and with a quick 6-0 run by Grant, Grigonis and Mitoglou, took the lead with 50-42 at 22′. Then, Mr Milutinov with a pin cut it to 50-44, however, the Serb was injured in the next phase on the left ankle by stepping on Papanikolaou, as a result of which he left supported from the field, in the middle applause from the “green” audience!
Taking advantage of his racket strength, Panathinaikos found two baskets with Lesor and Mitoglou for the 56-46before o Petrushev with five consecutive points drop the difference to 5 (56-51) , while a little later, Larentzakis’ three-pointer dropped the difference to 4 (58-54) at 28′. In the last two minutes, the hosts found points again from their tall men, thus closing the period with a good margin for 63-54.
With Marius Grigonis coming in “hot” and scoring 8 personal points, Panathinaikos AKTOR took the lead with +13 for 71-58 at its beginnings fourth period.
More in a while…
The quarters: 23-18, 44-42, 63-54, 85-80.
Watch the film of the match here.
See the match statistics.
Source: Sport Fm
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