Greek League, Playoffs, Semifinals Game 1: May 10, 2008
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Panathinaikos and Olympiacos opened the Greek League semifinals with impressive wins over Panionios and Maroussi, respectively. The defending champs got 19 points from Sarunas Jasikevicius en route to an easy 91-75 success, while Olympiacos took advantage of an exceptional 26-4 first quarter to sail to the final 87-61 as Sofoklis Schortsianitis, Giannis Bouroussis and Qyntel Woods posted 15 points apiece. The next games in the best-of-five series will be held on Tuesday at Panionios's and Maroussi's grounds.
At OAKA Sports Hall, Panathinaikos cruised to a 91-75 Game 1 win. Dimitris Diamantidis sank 12 points in the first period to help Panathinaikos to an early 25-16 lead. The Greens never lost control after that as Panionios proved unable to find offensive solutions and suffered a 68-45 deficit after 30 minutes. Jasikevicius scored 19 points on 5 three-pointers, Diamantidis finished with 14 points, Vassilis Spanoulis contributed 11 points and 4 assists and Mike Batiste had 10 points. Lonny Baxter and Alexander Capin scored 12 points each for Panionios, while Antanas Kavaljauskas had 11 and Giannis Kalampokis and Levon Kendall scored 10 apiece.
At Peace and Friendship Stadium, Olympiacos started impressively with a huge 26-4 first quarter lead to run away to a magnificent 43-13 difference seconds before halftime as Maroussi seemed to have run out of energy after its big success in knocking out Aris TT Bank in the quarterfinals. The hosts' frontline proved unstoppable; Schortsianitis scored 15 points in 11 minutes of play, Bouroussis bagged 15 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals, Girogos Printezis added 14 points, while Woods nailed 15 points from the perimeter. Marousssi had Branko Milisavljevic and Kostas Kaimakoglou to score 11 points apiece with Andreas Glyniadakis also reaching double digits with 10 points, 9 boards and 3 blocks.
| Semifinal Playoffs, best of 5 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | | 1 | Panathinaikos (1) | 91 | May 13 | May 15 | *May 18 | *May 21 | | 0 | Panionios (4) | 75 | - | - | - | - | | 1 | Olympiacos (2) | 87 | May 13 | May 15 | *May 18 | *May 21 | | 0 | Maroussi (6) | 61 | - | - | - | - |
| Semifinal games | | Game 1 | Panathinaikos vs. Panionios On Telecoms | 91-75 | May 10 | | Game 1 | Olympiacos vs. Maroussi | 87-61 | May 10 | | Game 2 | Panionios On Telecoms vs. Panathinaikos | - | May 13 | | Game 2 | Maroussi vs. Olympiacos | - | May 13 | | Game 3 | Panathinaikos vs. Panionios On Telecoms | - | May 15 | | Game 3 | Olympiacos vs. Maroussi | - | May 15 | | Game 4 | Panionios On Telecoms vs. Panathinaikos | - | *May 18 | | Game 4 | Maroussi vs. Olympiacos | - | *May 18 | | Game 5 | Panathinaikos vs. Panionios On Telecoms | - | *May 21 | | Game 5 | Olympiacos vs. Maroussi | - | *May 21 |
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Stelios Kyriakoglou, Athens
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