And now the FINAL!

Olympiacos bested Panathinaikos 81-65 and got a triumphant qualification to the Greek Cup Final, where he will be facing off with Peristeri (19/02, 18:15 CET).

The pressing defense the ‘greens’ were playing caused an offensive dysfunction for the ‘red & whites’, who saw Panathinaikos striking from the perimeter and taking a +4 lead (10-14 at 7’). Sasha Vezenkov took it upon himself to correct the situation and with an 8-0 partial run our team got ahead 18-14. However, despite closing the first quarter at +3 (22-19), the team never succeeded in imposing the tempo. On the contrary. The aggressive defense the ‘greens’ were playing impeded good ball movement, resulting in the ‘red & whites’ going to poor offensive choices – mainly from the perimeter where they had 5/17 threes – and hence finding themselves trailing by 5 (35-40) by the end of the first half.  

Everything changed in the second half though! With a defensive plan worthy of a seminar and Isaiah Canaan and Kostas Papanikolaou opening fire from the 6.75m., Olympiacos ‘ran’ a partial 20-1 score and got a +14 lead (55-41) at 27’. The baton in scoring was passed to Sasha Vezenkov, who saw that the distance became wider (+17, 60-43 at 29’). Panathinaikos made a final effort to come back closing in at 68-57 at 33’, but they got nowhere closer… With superb defense and Tarik Black running point in offence, our team maintained complete control (75-60 at 36’) and got the final win with characteristic ease.

The quarters: 22-19, 35-40, 64-50, 81-65.