The Greek Play-offs saw Kolossos stun the champions in game two.
Kolossos Rhodes- Panathinaikos 75-73
Kolossos surprised everyone by beating the Greek Champions for the second game of the Greek play-offs. The visitors got an early 8-3 lead but after that point, the Rhodians played with more passion, defended very well and found many easy baskets to end the first period leading 21-10.
Lukas Mavrokefalides tried to keep the “Greens” close but again the home side got the upper hand to reach the point difference to 15. Panathinaikos recovered and played like we have used them to, quickly and with correct offensive choices, achieving to reach within one. 6 consecutive points from Kolossos made the 43-36 score, which led the teams to the locker rooms.
After the restart, Kolossos maintained their cushion but Mavrokefalides was the player who kept the visitors close. However by the end of the third, Nikos Pappas was seriously injured and is estimated to stay out for five-six months.
This hurt Panathinaikos who seemed to totally lose focus, despite being close, 61-59, after 30 minutes. Same tempo to the game until the end, when Kolossos had a 2-point lead and coach Manolopoulos took time-out to plan his team’s last offensive play. Once again Mavrokefalides took the last shot but missed the lay-up, resulting to a big win for Kolossos Rhodes. The deciding clash will take place this Tuesday at the OAKA.
A.E.K.- Aris 92-54
AEK crushed Aris 92-54 at OAKA stadium to level the series and now the last game will be played in Thessaloniki. Despite walking on thin ice since they were behind 1-0, AEK were composed and had nice offensive flow, ending the first period in front 22-21, forcing Aris to struggle. A little defensive adjustment during the second period was what needed to skyrocket the lead to 47-27 by halftime.
The home team played with lots of energy on defense, allowing only six points in 10 minutes while Carl English boosted their offense to take a big lead.
Aris had little chance to the game and it was vanished as soon as the game restarted because AEK kept playing with extreme passion and composure, scoring from inside the paint and closing down Aleksandar Vezenkov. 69-43 after 3 quarters and after that, the visiting team did not try to turn things around as it was impossible. The margin kept stretching and “Dikefalos” made clear that they can take the win in the last game and promote to the semi-finals. English had 17 points for the winners and Pops Mensah-Bonsu followed with 12. For Aris, Vezenkov had 10 and was the only man for his team with double-digits.
A.G.O.Rethimno- P.A.O.K. 65-61
The series between the two teams is now tied since AGOR was patient and concentrated, managing to hold PAOK back. There were several lead changes right after the tip-off with the home team finally having the edge, 16-14.
It was the same pace until the end of the half but PAOK got a small five-point lead with Mohammad Faye answering back to send the two teams to the locker rooms with the visitors in front 31-33.
Again a back-and-forth fight during the second half when the home tem quickly equalized and got in front 49-44. Julian Vaughn was there to score at the end of the third quarter to bring PAOK within 51-48.
The key point of the match came with eight minutes before the end when the home side burst into a nine-point lead (59-50), and despite PAOK’s attempts to reduce the lead, AGOR kept finding ways to send it again to five points.
Finally Vaughn brought it within three, but Giorgos Dedas missed an open three-pointer to equalize and then Giannis Kalampokis scored, taking advantage of Jake Odum’s turnover to give the precious win to his team. MVP was Faye with 16 points and for PAOK Vaughn had 20 to keep his team close for the biggest part of the game.