Ionikos – Panathinaikos 61-68: Victory after hard work and suffering

On the night of Monday March 7th, Ionikos made a great effort against Panathinaikos OPAP. He wasn’t afraid of the opponent’s size, he took advantage of the opportunity presented to him by the greed of the Greens on the periphery (Stefan Jovic, Daryl Makon, Ioannis Papapetrou) and chased victory to the end. But she ended up in the hands of the guests.

Despite the poor performance and failure (4/20 three-pointers), Dimitris Priftis’ team took the pink card (68-61) for the 16th game of the Stoiximan Basket League and remained at the top of the table with thirteen consecutive wins.

To be successful he had to keep Ionikos without a point in the final five minutes of the game, leaving Giorgos Papagiannis on the floor for 35’47” as the 24-year-old center showed great things on both racquets (20 points, 17th minute). rebounds, 3 blocks).

Okaro White was the other green player with a double-digit score (16 with 6/14 shots and 1/1 shot) on a night when Jeremy Evans and Howard Sand Ross had 1/14 in a kid.

And the Ionian? The impressive performance of Daniel Hamilton (21 points, 13 rebounds) didn’t bring the desired result as Kouros Segura’s team finished the game with 34% on two points and 27% on three points.

The race

The spectacle in the first ten minutes was not the right one, as the many missed shots and errors on both sides outweighed it. Of course, this wasn’t a problem for Ionikos, who despite being 5/17 as a kid found a way to be competitive (15-15 in 10′). For its part, Panathinaikos OPAP was dysfunctional and sluggish in attack in the absence of cleanup and failed to create an imbalance in home defense.

That’s why he already scored with the dropper and had the biggest problems from 12 to 18 minutes of the game. A period where Ionikos got plenty from Muhaimin Mustafa (7 points, 7 rebounds) and Daniel Hamilton (10 points, 5 rebounds) en route to +8 (35-27 in 18′). The Greens reacted, bringing the game to a draw in less than a minute, but thanks to Daniel Hamilton’s three, Ionikos went into the dressing room with +3 (38:35) in the end.

The same pattern continued well into the third quarter as the hosts controlled the pace and the visitors didn’t start the field. Dimitris Priftis used Fives with Lefteris Bohoridis and Howard Sand Ross to improve his creation, which began to pay off. Ionikos was up to +8 (52-44 in 26′), but from then on the dates of the game changed.

The greens got points from the periphery and in combination with the failure of Ionikos in the two, the excitement came. To such an extent that Panathinaikos OPAP was at +5 (56-61 in 33′), showing that they now have the first reason to win. Kouros Segura’s team reacted at the moment and managed the draw with five consecutive points (61-61 in 35 minutes), but strength and options remained somewhere.

Without scoring a point in the next four minutes, it gave the visitors the opportunity to regain a small but image-wise important advantage and again reach +7 (61-68 in 39′), which was not disputed until the final. Panathinaikos OPAP came after hard work and suffering to win to remain at the top of the Stoiximan Basket League standings.

THE REFEREES: Papapetrou-Symeonidis-Gerakini.

THE TEN MINUTES: 15-15, 38-35, 54-55, 61-68.

IONIC (Segura): Mustafa 8 (1/4 three points, 8 rebounds), Hamilton 21 (5/10 two points, 3/7 three points, 2/2 shots, 13 rebounds), Koloveros 7 (1 three points, 4 rebounds ). , 5 assists) , Gondikas 12 (5/11 two points, 2/3 shots, 5 rebounds), Mouzes 2, Tzolos, Arsenopoulos 3 (1), Parker 3 (0/2 shots, 3/3 shots), Athineou 2 (0/7 shots, 2/2 shots), Langford 3.

PANATHINAIKUS OPAP (Priftis): Papagiannis 20 (10/15 two points, 17 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 error, 1 steal, 3 blocks), Kaselakis 7 (1/5 three points, 6 assists), White 16 (6/10 two points , 1/4 threes, 1/1 shot, 8 rebounds), Evans (0/8 shots, 3 rebounds), Sand Ross 2 (1/6 shots, 9 rebounds, 6 assists), Bohoridis 5 (1 threes). pointer, 4 assists), Kavvadas 2, Hugaz 8 (6 rebounds), Mantzoukas 8 (1/4 three points).

Group Stats – Ionian: 14/41 two points, 6/22 three points, 15/16 shots, 36 rebounds (25 defensive + 11 offensive), 9 assists, 9 errors, 2 steals, 2 blocks.

Team Stats – Panathinaikos OPAP: 25/50 two points, 4/20 three points, 6/9 shots, 50 rebounds (32 defensive + 18 offensive), 18 assists, 11 errors, 6 steals, 5 blocks.

The next commitments of the two teams: Panathinaikos OPAP has no EuroLeague commitments this week (the away game against Zenit has been postponed), so they return to face Peristeri on Sunday 13 March. For his part, Ionikos will play a crucial home game against Kolossos on Saturday 12 March.