After a thrilling game with wide swings in the score, o Panionios defeated 75-70 him Hercules in the second game of the Elite League Final Four and returned to the Stoiximan Basket League after four years!
Great effort from “Giraios”, who turned the match around from -12 and even had the lead almost until the 37th minute. It was followed by a big three-pointer by Milendijevic, a crucial follow-up by Kaklamanakis and good defenses by his team Ari Lykogiannis who gave her the rose leaf.
The leader of the “blue and red” was Nikos Gikas with 23 points and 10 rebounds, while o Iakovos Milendijevic added another 18p.
From Herakles, he stood out Nikos Paparegas with 18 points.
Amazing atmosphere in the closed Ano Liosia and with thousands of friends of both groupsn!
The match
A lot of nervousness from both teams in the first three minutes (5-5), with Heracles finding solutions with Shock and Malesevic, for +3 (7-10), at 5′. Panionios equalized the match and reduced to a point (11-12), with Paparega answering and “Giraios” escaping to +7 (11-18), in the 8th minute. Then, Milendijevic reduced to the basket (18-20), with Sarikopoulos shaping the 18-22 of the first period.
With Gikas and Vougioukas as protagonists, Panionios made the turnaround and went +5 (30-25), in the first five minutes of the second period. Herakles responded with a 4-0 run (30-29), with Ghika continuing his… crescendo outside of 6.75m. and to drag the team of Nea Smyrni, which went to +10 (44-34), at 19′. In the remaining time, nothing changed significantly, except for Paparega’s shots, which made it 44-36 in the first half.
Panionios was better at the beginning of the second half and with a 4-0 run, went to +12 (48-36), in the first two minutes. Heracles’ reaction came from Malesevic and Paparega, for individual scores of 2-10 (50-46), until the 26th minute. The “blue-reds” broke away with a three-pointer by Ghika, with Paparega answering and initially bringing the match to a point (53-52) and Curry putting the “Old Man” back in front (55-56) at the end of the third period.
With Vougioukas he brought Panionios back in front (58-56) at the beginning of the fourth quarter, with Kari doing the same for Iraklis (58-59). From that point on, the match was “one yours and one mine”, with the Thessaloniki team in front (66-67), until the 37th minute. With a big three-pointer by Milendijevic, the “blue-reds” took the lead (69-67) and a follow-up by Kaklamanakis sent them to +4 (72-68), at 28” to the end. Mastroyannopoulos cut back (72-70), with Ghika making 1/2 from the line, Mastroyannopoulos missing a 3-pointer and Harris 2/2 making it 75-70 with 7.7 minutes to go . Milendijevic made the steal on the rebound and Panionios celebrated the great victory!
The quarters: 18-22, 44-36, 55-56, 75-70
See the match statistics here
Watch the film of the match here
Source: Sport Fm
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