Greek League, Regular Season, Game 21: March 22-23, 2008
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Panathinaikos and Olympiacos kept on rolling through the Greek League heading up to their upcoming head-to-head duel this Wednesday in the Greek Cup final, while some teams fighting for avoiding relegation added huge wins in Matchday 21. Panathinaikos bounced back from its shock Euroleague elimination by beating Egaleo 76-85 on the road behind 20 points from Vassilis Spanoulis, with Sarunas Jasikevicius bagging 17 points and 6 assists and Mike Batiste connecting for 16. Olympiacos did not face the slightest difficulty to get away from Patras with a 103-66 win over Olympiada as Ioannis Bouroussis and Marc Jackson dominated the paint with 18 and 16 points, respectively. Visiting Olympia Larissa upset Aris TT Bank 58-48 to take a big step forward in the battle against the drop as Michael King scored 11 and Marios Batis had 10. Jeremiah Massey and Bracey Wright combined for 33 out of Aris's 48 points. There was a shock defeat for Panionios too, as AGO Rethymnon escaped from Hellinikon with an important 79-87 win to keep its hopes alive for avoiding going down. Stefan Nadjfeji led the way for the visitors with 20 points, while Ivan Zoroski had 23 for Panionios. Another team from the table's bottom, Kolossos Rhodes, took a clutch win by beating visiting Maroussi as Kenny Taylor nailed 22 points, Danilo Pinnock had 21 and Giorgos Diamantopoulos added 16. In other games, AE Larissa stopped Panellinios 92-88 with Billy Keys and David Teague netting 25 and 21 points, respectively, while AEK beat PAOK 73-64 behind 15 points from Alexis Kyritsis to put the guests in trouble concerning their position in the A1 League.
Panathinaikos bounced back from its shock Euroleague elimination by beating Egaleo 76-85 on the road behind 20 points from Vassilis Spanoulis. Egaleo was the team in charge for the first 25 minutes, handling Panathinakos for a 37-33 halftime lead and a 50-46 advantage midway the third period. The Greens reacted with an incredible 18-0 run that made the game history. Spanoulis also recorded 4 assists and 4 steals, Sarunas Jasikevicius had 17 points and 6 assists and Mike Batiste added 16 points. Andre Patterson had 15 points for Egaleo in defeat. Panathinaikos's Kostas Tsartsaris returned to action after his long absence to get prepared for the upcoming cup final against arch-rival Olympiacos, playing a total of 18 minutes and picking up 5 points and 4 rebounds.
Getting ready for the cup final too was Olympiacos, which had an easy evening in Patras, crushing Olympiada 103-66. Head coach Pianigiotis Giannakis had the chance to give at least nine minutes of playing time to every Red. Olympiacos’s big men dominated the baskets to lead the way; Ioannis Bouroussis and Marc Jackson combined for 34 points, Jake Tsakalidis added 11 and Giorgos Printezis contributed 10 to prove the guests' superiority near the basket. Milos Teodosic dished 7 assists, while Arvydas Macijauskas had 8 points and 3 assists in 12 minutes. Former Olympiacos player Periklis Dorkofikis was Olympiada's top scorer with 17 points. Motivation and setting up its offense were the main reasons for Aris to lose at Alexandrion Melathron against mighty Olympia Larissa, 48-58. Jeremiah Massey posted 18 points and Bracey Wright had 15 to prove few compared to the visitors' offensive pluralism that had Michael King to score 11 and Marios Batis to add 10.
LAST GAME GAME 21
March 22-23, 2008 | | Day | Match | Result | | Mar. 22 | KOLOSSOS vs. MAROUSI | 88-84 | | Mar. 22 | A.E.K. vs. P.A.O.K. | 73-64 | | Mar. 22 | PANIONIOS vs. ALMECO | 79-87 | | Mar. 22 | ARIS T.T.BANK vs. OLYMPIA | 48-58 | | Mar. 23 | OLYMPIAS vs. OLYMPIACOS | 66-103 | | Mar. 23 | EGALEO vs. PANATHINAIKOS | 76-85 | | Mar. 23 | A.E.L. vs. PANELLINIOS | 92-88 |
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NEXT GAME GAME 22
March 29-30, 2008 | | Day | Match | | Mar. 30 | PANATHINAIKOS vs. AEP | | Mar. 29 | MAROUSI vs. EGALEO | | Mar. 29 | LARISAS vs. KOLOSSOS | | Mar. 29 | PANELLINIOS vs. ARIS | | Mar. 29 | OLYMPIACOS vs. A.E.K. | | Mar. 30 | P.A.O.K. vs. PANIONIOS | | Mar. 29 | ALMECO vs. A.E.L. 1964 |
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| STANDINGS | TG | W | L | P+ | P- | | 1 | PANATHINAIKOS | 21 | 19 | 2 | 1859 | 1480 | | 2 | OLYMPIACOS | 21 | 18 | 3 | 1816 | 1529 | | 3 | ARIS T.T.BANK | 21 | 14 | 7 | 1564 | 1461 | | 4 | PANELLINIOS | 21 | 12 | 9 | 1621 | 1617 | | 5 | EGALEO | 21 | 11 | 10 | 1624 | 1661 | | 6 | PANIONIOS OnTelecoms | 21 | 11 | 10 | 1622 | 1549 | | 7 | A.E.L. | 21 | 10 | 11 | 1594 | 1621 | | 8 | A.E.K. | 21 | 10 | 11 | 1572 | 1543 | | 9 | MAROUSI COSTA COFFEE | 21 | 9 | 12 | 1500 | 1551 | | 10 | OLYMPIA ATHIENITIS | 21 | 8 | 13 | 1436 | 1494 | | 11 | P.A.O.K. | 21 | 8 | 13 | 1518 | 1612 | | 12 | KOLOSSOS RODOU | 21 | 7 | 14 | 1587 | 1813 | | 13 | A.G.O.R. ALMECO | 21 | 7 | 14 | 1496 | 1560 | | 14 | A.E.P. OLYMPIAS | 21 | 3 | 18 | 1434 | 1752 |
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Stelios Kyriakoglou, Athens
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