Panathinaikos was the winner of the Greek League showdown against archival Olympiacos, 74-70, on Sunday at OAKA to remain perfect at 4-0 and share the same record with Kolossos Rhodes, which enjoyed a week 5 bye. Dimitris Diamantidis paced the defending Euroleague champions with 15 points and 8 assists and Giorgos Printezis was the best in defeat for the Reds as he netted 18 points.
Aris registered its first win after four consecutive losses by edging Ikaros Kallithea 83-68 at home as Christos Tapoutos and Dominic James netted 19 points apiece. PAOK escaped from Maroussi with a 69-71 win behind 17 points from Rashad Wright and 15 from JR Giddens.
In other games, Panionios won its fourth in a row by thrashing Drama 92-63, with Vladimir Jankovic bagging 19 points, Rethimno downed Ilissiakos 72-66 behind 23 points from Nikos Papanikolaou and Peristeri bested Kavala 78-67 as Richard Roby posted 20 points.
At OAKA, Panathinaikos took advantage of its depth, a good pick-and-roll offense and a superior rebounding advantage to lead from start to finish and beat Olympiacos 74-70. Nevertheless, the visitors proved themselves tough to beat. The hosts started 16-6, but the visitors came back with 8 straight points.
Then Panathinaikos led 39-26 and soared up to 44-30. Despite poor shooting from three-point range, 3 for 21, Olympiacos returned to the game, thanks to a zone defense and several turnovers committed by the hosts. With three minutes to go, Panathinaikos led 72-59, but Olympiacos used a 2-11 run and cut to 74-70, but it wasn’t enough.
Diamantidis led the Greens with 15 points and 8 assists, but also 8 turnovers, while Romain Sato, Ian Vougioukas and Nick Calathes scored 10 points apiece and Steven Smith grabbed 10 rebounds. Giorgos Printezis led the Reds with 18 points, Vassilis Spanoulis recorded 14 points and 4 assists, Pero Antic got 9 points and 6 boards and Lazaros Papadopoulos and Kyle Hines bagged 8 points each.(Source euroleague.net)
Posts
