Panathinaikos OPAP entered the rotation with Peristeri without a five, with two youngsters (Neoklis Avdalas, Emmanouil Dimou) in the… top ten lining up, but still it worked in OAKA (75-57). Dimitris Priftis’ team easily beat Milan Tomic’s team, who had no rhythm for most of the forty minutes, largely paying for them having a month to give an official game.

All this four days before the meeting at SEF with Olympiakos for the EuroLeague, where Dimitris Priftis expects (much) more help, namely in the presence of some of the players who missed the game against Peristeri (see Howard Sand Ross, Ioannis Papapetrou , Stefan Jovic, Vassilis Kavvadas Lefteris Mantzoukas).

The race

From a young age, Panathinaikos OPAP made sure to show who was boss in the game. The +8 (8-0 in 3′) was just the beginning as you can see as the home team’s big guys did a great job and were constantly worried about Peristeri’s defence. At the same time, Milan Tomic’s players had 1/9 threes in the first period, and the -7 (20-13) of 10′ quickly turned into -14 (28-14) in the 14th minute.

Whatever the Peristeri coach tried didn’t work, simply because the Panathinaikos OPAP players continued to perform brilliantly in defence. So strong that the lead went up to +20 (37:17 in 18′) for Dimitris Priftis’ team, who kept the safety margin until the break (40:23) despite Nemanja Nedovic not scoring 6’48” used in the first part.

If he wanted to change the course of play, Peristeri had to put the pressure on in the third ten minutes. However, with the exception of two and a half minutes, he didn’t make it, with the result that he could only reach -11 (49-38 in 28′) at most. Dimitris Priftis’ reaction was immediate, with the time-out he requested to restore order and help Panathinaikos OPAP get back to +19 (62-43 in 33′) very quickly, with aggressive pluralism being the great weapon the host is

It was all procedural from there, with the green players keeping the difference at a safe distance and achieving victory () for Game 17 of the Stoiximan Basket League.

THE REFEREES: Pitsilkas – Tziopanos – Milapidis.

THE TEN MINUTES: 20-13, 40-23, 58-43, 75-57.

PANATHINAIKUS OPAP (Priftis): Meikon 16 (6/8 two points, 1/3 three points, 1/2 shots, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 errors), Papagiannis 14 (7/9 two points, 8 rebounds), Kaselakis 7 ( 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 errors), White 17 (3/8 three points, 7 rebounds), Nedovic 7 (1/8 three points), Dimou, Bohoridis 11 (1 three points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists), Avdalas , Hougaz 2, Evans 1 (5 rebounds).

DOVE (Tomic): Moraitis 11 (1/8 three points), Chrysikopoulos 9 (0/4 three points), Katsivelis 8 (2/6 three points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 errors), Brown 1 (4 rebounds), Gray 10 (2/5 three points), Kozi 4 (1/7 shots), Petaway 3 (1), Giello 5 (1/7 three points), Christidis, Agbelis.

Team Stats – Panathinaikos OPAP: 21/36 two points, 6/25 three points, 15/22 shots, 48 ​​rebounds (34 defensive + 14 offensive), 13 assists, 10 errors, 4 steals, 3 blocks.

Group Statistics – Peristeri: 13/30 two points, 8/36 three points, 7/13 shots, 34 rebounds (20 defensive + 14 offensive), 12 assists, 10 errors, 7 steals.

The next commitments of the two teams: Panathinaikos OPAP is tested at Olympiacos headquarters for EuroLeague and then plays away at Kolossos while Peristeri returns to ‘Andreas Papandreou’ to welcome PAOK.