OLYMPIACOS IS THE GREEK CUP CHAMPION!!!

The first is ours!!! Olympiacos beat Panathinaikos 81-73 and won the Greek Cup trophy, nailing the first goal of the season!

The ‘greens’ took Olympiacos by surprise and began with a 7-0 streak, however, our team’s response was a swift one. With a 7-0 of their own, the ‘reds’ tied the game 7-7 (at 4’) and then relying on their good defensive performance and with Tyler Dorsey and Sasha Vezenkov executing, they imposed the rhythm and closed the first quarter at +4 (17-21).

Relying on good perimeter percentages, Panathinaikos got to balance out the game (37-37 at 17’). They didn’t stop there though… Bad decisions in regard to offense and inefficient ball movement created a serious offensive problem for the ‘reds’ that saw Panathinaikos ‘building’ a +6 margin (45-39) at 20’.

What was going wrong was not corrected in the second half… Turnovers, gaps in the defense and bad choices in the offense allowed the ‘greens’ to increase the distance to +12 (59-47 at 25’) and maintain the leading position up until 30’ (67-58).

Everything changed in the fourth quarter though! Olympiacos played with abundant energy and leaning on defense, got to run a 15-0 partial, which gave them the lead and made the score 73-67 at 37’. Okaro White scored the first points for Panathinaikos in the last quarter from the free throw line (69-73, 2:37’’ before the end), while from the same position, it was Nedovic that wrote the 73-77 (43’’ before the final buzzer). Olympiacos however continued ‘betting’ on their defense and thanks to their composure from the free throw line got the win.

The quarters: 17-21, 45-39, 67-58, 73-81.