Panathinaikos reacted, responded and leveled the series of finals!
Being superior throughout the second final and having as its most important “weapon” its excellent defensive function, the “greens” prevailed with Olympiakos 68-58 in the packed “Telekom Center Athens”!
The match:
Ergin Ataman started the game with Nunn, Grant, Osman, Hayes-Davies and Lessor, choosing to leave Hernangomet, Farid, out of the six, while the injured Slukas was left out again, with Rogavopoulos returning to the starting line-up. Walkup, Fournier, Papanikolaou, Vezenkov and Milutinov made up Olympiakos’ starting five, with Giorgos Bartzokas making two changes to his starting XI, opting for Hall and Nilikina instead of Jones and Ward. Dorsey remained out.
The second final started with Papanikolaou hitting consecutive layups, putting Olympiakos ahead 4-0, while the leader of the “red and white” also hit a three-pointer, making it 0-7! On the other hand, Panathinaikos did not manage to hit the target in the first 3 minutes of the game, having a few series of bad attacks, until Osman came to reduce to 4-7 with his consecutive baskets.
Fournier’s floater made it 4-9 and Milutinov’s one-shot made it 4-10, Nunn scored his first point from the line and Vezenkov scored for the first time as well, making it 5-12. Hayes-Davis … snapped his hitting streak to cut it to 9-12 with two straight baskets and Vezenkov’s big 3-pointer made it 9-15, which was the score as the first period ended.
The second quarter started with Hall nailing impressively and Shorts answering with a beautiful layup of his own, while Peters “wrote” 11-19, taking advantage of Fournier’s second assist. Vezenkov put Olympiakos ahead for the first time with a double-digit lead (11-21), before Rogavopoulos (with a layup) and Hayes-Davis (with a three-pointer), brought the game to 16-23. Shorts with a floater made it 18-23, before Milutinov ended the short streak of the “greens”, bringing Olympiakos back to +9 (18-27) with two consecutive baskets.
Grant with a three-pointer and a foul gave the solution to the attack of Panathinaikos, reducing it to 22-27, while Toliopoulos with his first basket and Osman with his two shots, brought the game to 26-27, Fournier with his big three-pointer made it 26-30, with Toliopoulos responding, making it 29-30 in the first half!
With the return of the two teams from the locker room, Lessor with his first basket and Nan with his first three-pointer, made it 34-30, while Grant with a difficult reverse layup brought Panathinaikos’ partial run to 18-3! Olympiacos remained stuck offensively, going without a basket for 8 minutes, until Papanikolaou came in to hit two shots to cut it to 36-32.
Hayes-Davis with two consecutive three-pointers made it 42-34 and Osman gave Panathinaikos a double-digit lead for the first time (44-34), while Olympiacos was completely “frozen” offensively, with only one accurate field goal in 8 minutes. Fournier and Joseph with shots made it 46-38 and Toliopoulos hit for 48-38 in the third period, with the “red and white” having scored only 8 points in the quarter and with 6 of them coming from shots.
Hayes-Davis with his fourth three-pointer reached 18 personal points, to put Panathinaikos at +11 for the first time (51-40), while Fournier scored a two-point breather for Olympiakos, before Hayes-Davis hit again from a distance, for 55-43, and scored again, for 57-43! Walkup’s 3-pointer cut it to 57-46 and Lessor made an impressive layup to make it 59-46 before retiring to the bench with left leg discomfort.
Olympiacos tried to stay in the game, mainly with Fournier’s shots, but the greens did not allow their superiority to be challenged and the game to be lost. Final score 68-58 and 1-1 in the Stoiximan GBL finals series.
The quarters: 9-15, 29-30, 48-38, 68-58