The Greek Basketleague starts, so brace yourself.
Paok -Rethymno Cretan Kings = 81-64
During this summer Paok bought many players, but the most significant Greek players stay in the team from North Greece. Giannis Athinaiou played last season in the rival team of Paok, Aris Thessalonikis, would replace Dimitri Katsiveli, who moved to Patra and Promitheas. Four foreign players changed in the team, who coach Ilias Papatheodorou. Joined in the team for this season the point guard William Hatcher from Sassari, the guard Jamal Jones from Tezenis Verona and two center, Darrius Garrett and the Angolian Yanick Moreira from Parma. Also one more American, the forward Malik Pope from college San Diego State joined in the team . Paok bought also Stavro Schiza from Kollosos Rodou and during this week signed the guard Nontas Papantoniou, who rumored for Aris Thessalonikis.
Rethymno Cretan Kings is locate in Crete and Rethymno, start the new season with new team and players than last year. Only the American forward Travis Daniels and the small forward Greek-Cypriot Andreas Christodoulou stay in the team from last year. With the new head coach Stavros Mykoniatis Rethymno make new team, because want to forget last bad season. The 10nth place left Rethymno outside the play-offs, 3 points over relegated teams Koroivos and Trikala. The chairman and the owner of the team Mr. Kostis Zompanakis, in the celebration of the beginning of the new basketball season, on the Melina Merkouri stadium talks about a long-term plan that its goal is Rethymno play in the European competition in three years. Rethymno lost the services of Charis Giannopoulos, who moved to AEK Athens, but signed Keith Clanton. In the last season Clanton played in Bulgaria and won the championship with Levski Lukoil with 8 points and 9 rebounds average. Clanton is very good choice. The ex-NBAer Andreas Glyniadakis, who he won one bronze medal with Greek national team at Eurobasket 2009, 2 Euroleague titles in 2000 with Panathinaikos and 2012 with Olympiakos will offer experience and confidence to the team, which created by scratch. During the week Paok won Panionios 81-69 for the Greek cup basketball with Jones scored 16 points, Linos Chrysikopoulos 15 points and Garrett 14 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. Also Rethymno defeated by Kymi 61-69. The 15 points of Guyton, who was moved from Italy and Piacenza to Crete and Rethymno and 13 points of Burtt wasn’t enough for Rethymno to win the match and to take the ticket for the quarterfinals of Greek cup.
Analysis of the match: Paok won the first match of Basketleague in Paok Sports Arena against Rethymno. Jamal Jones for Paok and Steven Burtt for Rethymno were the best players of the match in the first half time. Rethymno tried to equalize the match, but the performance of Paok players and Yanick Moreira’s mainly in the second half led Paok to the victory . Yanick Moreira also had double-double yesterday, but the MVP of the match was Jamal Jones with a solid performance.
Numbers – Quarters: 23-20, 44-30, 69-51, 81-64
Referees= Koromilas – Somos – Tswnos Stadium= PAOK sports Arena
PAOK Best players
Points: Jamal Jones ( 16 points), Rebounds: Yanick Moreira ( 14 rebounds) Assist= Giannis Athnaiou ( 5 assists)
Rethymno best players
Points: Steven Burrt ( 19 points), Rebounds: Keith Clanton ( 12 rebounds) Assist= Jabril Durham ( 6 assists)
Paok: No 1 Jamal Jones ( 16 points, 4/5 3P, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 17 points ranking), No 2 Yanick Moreira ( 16 points, 14 rebounds, 7 def. rebounds + 7 off. rebounds , 21 points ranking, the biggest ranking in the game), No 4 Linos Chrysikopoulos ( 8 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assist), No 5 Stavros Schizas ( 4 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal), No 6 Antonis Koniaris ( 6 points, 1 rebound, 4 assist), No11 Vaggelis Margaritis ( 8 points, 2 Turnovers), No13 Theodoros Zaras ( 7points, 2 rebound, 2 assist), No 21 Malik Pope, No22 Nontas Papantoniou ( 1 rebound, 2 assist, 1 turnover) No25 William Hutcher ( 4 points, 2 rebound, 3 assist, 1 steal, 2 Turnovers), No27 Giannis Athinaiou ( 4 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 turnover, 10 points of ranking), No 31 Darius Garrett ( 8 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 10 points of ranking).
Rethymno: No 1 Travis Daniels ( 12 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists , 1steal, 18 points of ranking ), No2 Kevin Bracy-Davis ( 12 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 11 points of ranking), No 3 Carlton Guyton ( 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers), No4 Jabril Durham ( 12 points, 1 rebound, 6 assist, 16 points of ranking), Konstantinos Oikonomopoulos, No6 Xristoforos Razis ( 1 rebound) No 9 Dimitris Kourrepis( 1 foul), No 11 Andreas Glyniadakis ( 2points, 1 rebound, 1 steal), No15 Steven Burtt ( 19 points, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 16 points of ranking), No18 Fillipos Kalogiannidis ( 1 foul, 2 turnovers), No 23 Nasos Kalaitzakis, No 33 Keith Clanton( 2points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 blocks, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 18 points of ranking)
Kollosos Rodes H Hotels- Promitheas= 68-83
Kollosos H Hotels host Promitheas from Patra for the first gameweek of Basketleague. Kollosos is locate in Rodes and it has 11 consecutive participations in Basketleague , with 8 times play in play-offs. The best position of Kollosos is the fourth place in Basketleague season of 2011-2012, which are the best place of regional team in Greek basketball league until the last year’s four place of Promitheas. The chairman of Kollosos Rodes Mr. Michalis Kokkinos made a speech, in the day, which the team have the holy water to blessing players for the new season, and he argued with ambitious that the already new team and coach of Kollosos would be reach at top four and underlined that the locals love and support the team. Giannis Georgalis stays for 8th season at Kollosos and he is the captain of the team, although five new American players arrived , which are four rookies in Basketleague and Ivan Aska, who played for Paok and Ikaros. New coach at Kollosos after four season coached by Aris Lykogiannis, who moved to Holargos. The new coach is Nikos Vetoulas, who knows very well the greek basketball league, after he is experience as coach of Apollon Patras, Promitheas Patras and Rethymno Cretan Kings. Kollosos Rodes also bought 3 greeks, which are Giwrgos Georgakis from Iraklis Thessalonikis, Giannis Dimakos from Promitheas Patras and the most famous player who moved to Rodes in this summer is Dimitris Mavroeidis.
Promitheas Patras locate in Patra Achaias in the Peloponesse. Patra has a long basketball history with Apollon Patras and Olympiada Patrwn. Promitheas from 2013-2014 to 2015-2016 had three promotions in a row and reach the Baskeleague at 2016-2017 season. The first appearance with the ninth place and the second appearance with the four place fulfil the team with confidence which owned by Mr. Vangelis Liolios and coached by Mr. Makis Giatras. Promitheas set the bar high for this year , also Patra’s team will play to Basketball Champions League and represent the Greece with AEK and Paok, but the youth facilities of Promitheas will play in Euroleague’s competition of next generation. Promitheas has a long-term project and all make their best to reach the top places in Greek basketleague, although during the summer many significant players left for other teams like Mouhammad Faye moved to Crvena Zvezda, Milan Milosevic to Laurio, Casey Prater to Khimki, Stavros Toutziarakis to Kymi and Trevor Releford to MBC in Germany. Mr. Makis Giatras choose to coorparate with Dimitris Katsivelis ( guard) from Paok Thessalonikis, Michalis Tsairelis (forward) from Aris Thessalonikis and Leonidas Kaselakis (forward) from Astana Kazakhstan. Enisey’s player Octavius Ellis, Golden State Warriors player Rion Brown and Lavrio’s Tony Meier moved to Patra to boost the team. Gkikas, Saloustros, Hall, Lypovy and others stay at club with goal to establishing themselves as one of the best regional teams of greek basketball history. Promitheas won Aris Thessalonikis during this week 86-65 and progress to quarterfinals of Greek cup.
Analysis of the match: Two very significant teams for regional basketball of Greece are Kollosos Rodou and Promitheas. Kolossos begun better than Patra’s team, because Dimitris Mavroeidis and Giannis Dimakos was very good in the first two quarters. Although Promitheas played well and the gap between two teams was only 5 points ( 23-18) in the first quarter. Promitheas took the lead in the second quarter ( 41-43) and the team of Mr. Giatras gained the a beneficial lead in third quarter. In the end of the match Promitheas won easily, because Kaselakis and Tsairelis played very well.
Numbers – Quarters: 23-18 , 41-43, 51-68 , 68-83
Referees= Karakatsounis- Mpitis -Andrikopoulos Stadium= Venetokleio Indoor Hall
Kollosos Rodou H Hotels Best players
Points: Dimitris Mauroeidis ( 17 points), Rebounds: Dimitris Mauroeidis ( 8 rebounds) Assist= Tyreek Duren ( 4 assists)
Promitheas best players
Points: Leonidas Kaselakis ( 19 points), Rebounds: Leonidas Kaselakis ( 6 rebounds) Assist= Langston Hall ( 7 assists)
Kollosos Rodou H Hotels : No2 Stevie Browning ( 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover), No3 Tyreek Duren ( 9 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 4 turnover, 9 points of ranking), No 4 Tim Kempton ( 5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist), No7 Ivan Aska ( 7 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assist, 2 steals, 2 turnovers), No 8 Giannis Dimakos ( 15 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 13 points of ranking), No 10 Giannis Georgallis ( 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 turnover), No 11 Quincy Diggs ( 11 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 10 points of ranking), No 12 Sotiris Billis, No 13 Alexandros Aggelakos , No 14 Georgios Georgakis, No22 Dimitris Mavroeidis ( 17 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 4 turnovers, 24 points of ranking), No23 Kostas Papadakis ( 1 rebound)
Promitheas: No1 Langston Hall ( 9 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assist, 1 block, 3 turnovers), No 3 Olexander Lypovy ( 6 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists,) No8 Nikos Gkikas ( 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turnover), No 9 Mixalis Tsairelis ( 17 points, 3 rebounds, 1 turnover, 14 points of ranking), No 10 Petros Geromichalos ( 1 rebound, 1 steal), No 14 Leonidas Kaselakis ( 19 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assist, 2 steals, 1 turnover, 28 points of ranking), No 15 Xristos Saloustros ( 5 points, 1 rebound, 2 assist, 3 turnovers), No19 Dimitris Katsivelis ( 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assist, 5 turnovers), No 21 Tony Meier ( 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 10 ranking), No 25 Rion Brown ( 9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal), No32 Octavius Ellis ( 2 rebounds,) No 42 Terell Parks ( 2 points, 3 rebounds)
Panathinaikos Opap Kae- Hfaistos Limnou= 93-65
6 Euroleague titles, 36 Greek championship titles, 18 Greek cups and 1 Intercontinental cup makes Panathinaikos basketball team the most successful team in Greek sports history. The controversial chairman Mr. Dimitris Giannakopoulos , who also loves Panathinaikos, want to make the triple crown this year. Coach Xavi Pasqual remains in the team and make new plans for this season, but also keep the most significant players in Panathinaiko’s gaming. Marcus Denmon, Chris Singleton and Kenny Gabriel left Panathinaikos for Zhejiang Ch. ( China), Barcelona ( Spain) and Turk Telecom ( Turkey) respectively. K.C. Rivers and Adreian Payne left the team and Lekavicius, Lojeski and Gist are the only foreign players to stay in the team. Staphane Lasme and George Papagiannis return to Panathinaikos from Unics and Portland, but the transfer, who made noise and increase the rumours is the removal of Ioannis Papapetrou from Olympiakos to Athens. Keith Langford from Maccabi Rizhon and Vaggelis Sakellariou became part of << the Greens>> for this season. Deshaun Thomas came from Maccabi Tel Aviv and he is supposed to be one of the most significant players of Panathinaikos. One of the best point-guards of Europe, Nick Calathes remain in six starred team with other greek important players like guard Nikos Pappas, forward Thanassis Antetokoumpo and one Greek player with great potential. Konstantinos Mitoglou. The tournament to honored the historic owner and chairman Mr. Pavlos Giannakopoulos, who died in last June , took place in OAKA in 27-28 Semptember 2018 and Panathinaikos won the title of the competition. Also for the Greek cup, this week Panathinaikos won Pangrati with 66-100.
Gymnastikos Syndesmos Larisas-Faros moved from Larissa to Limnos, which is one island of North-Eastern Aegean sea and the team renamed to Hfaistos Limnou. New team, new place, new logo team and of course new fans. Is the first time Limnos has ambassador to the Basketleague and everyone are very curious to see how the new team will work. Ta Sfyria, the hammers is the new nickname of the team, which locate to Myrina in Limnos. The president of the team is Mr. Spyros Boumbouras and the owner is Mr. Pantelis Boumbouras, who he has roots from Limnos and coached by Mr. Sotiris Manolopoulos. Mr. Manolopoulos bought players, who have experience in greek Basketleague and he would be rely on this like Brazelton from Panionios, Mourtos from Aris Thessalonikis, Dimitris Stamatis from Kolossos, Manolopoulos from Rethymno, Antwaine Wiggins from Laurio . The international Latvian player Rolands Freimanis joined in the team and boost the prestige of Hfaistos Limnou. Very interesting attempt, but the results will show the effieciency of a team and the player’s abilities. Hfaistos Limnou also have been beaten by Peristeri 91-81 and eliminated from quarterfinals of Greek cup.
Analysis of the match: Panathinaikos expected that the afternoon will be easy against Hfaistos Limnou . The new team of Basketleague Hfaistos Limnou, tried with Shaun Evans and Jerry Smith, but Nikos Pappas and James Gist was leaders of Panathinaikos scoring , plus fifty points from the bench of Greens made the final score 93-65
Numbers – Quarters: 23-14 , 49- 32 , 70-46 , 93-65
Referees= P. Anastopoulos- Symeonidis- Lortos Stadium= O.A.K.A Olympic Indoor Hall
KAE Panathinaikos Opap Best players
Points: DeShaun Thomas ( 16 points), Rebounds: Stephane Lasme ( 7 rebounds) Assist= Nick Calathes ( 10 assists)
Hfaistos Limnou best players
Points: Jerry Smith ( 19 points), Rebounds: Sean Evans ( 6 rebounds) Assist= Jerry Smith ( 7 assists)
KAE Panathinaikos Opap : No 0 DeShaun Thomas ( 16 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 17 points of ranking), No 5 Keith Langfort ( 9 points, 3 assist, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 8 points of ranking), No6 Giwrgos Papagiannis( 5 points, 1 rebound, 2 blocks), No7 Stephane Lasme ( 6 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks, 2 steal, 1 turnover, 11 points of ranking), No 10 Ioannis Papapetrou ( 4 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist), No 11 Nikos Pappas ( 11 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 16 points of ranking), No 14 James Gist ( 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 18 points of ranking), No 19 Lukas Lekavicius ( 5 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assist, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 10 points of ranking), No24 Matt Lojecki ( 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 turnover), No33 Nick Calathes ( 11n points, 2 rebounds, 10 assist, 2 steal, 4 turnovers, 19 points of ranking), No43 Thanasis Antetokoumbo ( 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 block), No44 Konstantinos Mitoglou ( 7 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block)
Hfaistos Limnou: No 0 Toddrick Gotcher ( 9 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assist, 2 steal), No1 Sotiris Manolopoulos ( 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 turnovers), No3 Tyrone Brazelton ( 4 points, 2 assist, 6 turnovers), No5 Sean Evans ( 18 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 23 points of ranking), No 6 Jerry Smith ( 18 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 16 points of ranking, No7 Dimitris Stamatis ( 2points, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist), No15 Dimitris Charitopoulos , No16 Spyros Mourtos ( 3 rebounds), No 19 Konstantinos Gontikas ( 1 rebound), No 24 Rolands Freimanis ( 4 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1block, 2 turnovers), No25 Giwrgos Garezos , No30 Antwaine Wiggins ( 5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal, 1 turnover)
Peristeri- AEK Athens= 83-80
Basketleague consist from 14 teams, 7 of this locate in Attica. Peristeri is a neighborhood in Athens with basketball history. Peristeri in English means dove and the name inspire the emblem of the team. Although Peristeri relegated in 2012-2013 season of Basketleague, but it has a long history in the Greek and the European basketball. The biggest asset of the team is the coach Argyris Pedoulakis, who returns to courts with Peristeri. Skordilis, Karabelas and Kadras remain in the team, but Kiki Clark and Panagiotis Vasilopoulos are significant tools for Peristeri to achieve the goals. The team from Athens make good transfers during the summer time like Ben Bentil from Bilbao, Jeff Allen from Chinese team Hebei X, the forward Vasilis Mouratos from Hfaistos, Harrow from Rosa Random and Sirko from Split. Peristeri won in Greek cup Hfaistos Limnou 91-81 and progress to the next round.
The winner of Basketball Champions League Aek Athens will be more competitive in Basketleague this year after signing Jonas Maciulis. Aek Athens won 2 big titles lasy year, Basketball Champions League and Greek cup and it is the best way to celebrate the 50 years of the first European title in 1968 in Kallimarmaro Stadium of Athens. New coach for Aek, Mr. Luca Banchi replace Dragan Sakota and many new players come during the transfer period. Mike Green, Derloy James and Kevin Punter was gone and Aek signed the point guard Malcolm Griffin, the Canadian guard of LA Lakers Xavier Rathan-Mayes and the Eurocup winner with Darrusafaka last year Howard Sant-Roos. Charis Giannopoulos added to greek players and return to Athens after 2012-1013 and Panathinaikos. Also Aek signed Aristeidis Tsourgiannis from Doukas. Aek won Greek Basketleague 2001-2002 and it is the last team outside Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, who achieve this. AEK must defend the title in Basketball Champions League and Greek cup. AEK also will play in Argentina in February with San Lorenzo for Intercontinental Cup. For the Greek cup round of 16 Aek Athens won Diagora Driopidewn, an A2 team with 54-76.
Analysis of the match: Peristeri won one of the most competitive Greek teams, which is Aek Athens. In the first quarter the match was balanced and Peristeri was leading by 4 points ( 21-17). In the second and third quarter Peristeri coached by Argyris Pedoulakis, who was excellent during the match, lead the score with 20 points ( 67-47). Aek Athens tried to reduce the difference , but Peristeri with the amazing performance of Harrow won the match ( 83-80).
Numbers – Quarters: 21-17 , 44- 25 , 67-47 , 83-80
Referees= Papapetrou-Panagiwtou-Manglogiannis Stadium= Peristeri Arena
Peristeri Bikos Cola Best players
Points: Ryan Harrow ( 21 points), Rebounds: Ryan Harrow ( 6 rebounds) Assist= Ryan Harrow ( 6 assists)
Aek Athens best players
Points: Xavier Rathan-Mayes ( 22 points), Rebounds: Jonas Maciulis ( 7 rebounds) Assist= Xavier Rathan-Mayes ( 8 assists)
Peristeri Bikos Cola: No4 Gaios Skordilis ( 1 point, 4 rebounds), No7 Vassilis Mouratos ( 7 points, 2 rebounds, 10 points of ranking), No11 Giannis Agravanis, No12 Panagiotis Gilippakos, No17 Edward Daniels ( 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 turnover, 11 points of ranking), No 18 Zois Karambelas, No21 Panagiotis Vasilopoulos ( 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 13 points of ranking), No23 Kiki Clark ( 6 points, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers), No31 Henry Sirko ( 1 point, 6 rebounds), No32 Steven Grey ( 10 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists), No50 Ben Bentil ( 16 points, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 14 points of ranking), Ryan Harrow ( 21 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 5 turnovers, 26 points of ranking)
Aek Athens: No5 Dusan Sakota ( 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 turnover), No7 Giorgos Tsalmbouris, No8 Jonas Maciulis ( 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steal, 2 turnover, 18 points of ranking), No 11 Xavier Rathan-Mayes ( 22 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 turnover, 27 points of ranking), No12 Giannoulis Laretzakis ( 12 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 turnovers), No21 Dimitris Moraitis ( 1 rebound, 2 assist), No23 Malcolm Griffin ( 13 points, 1 rebound, 1 turnover, 10 points of ranking), No24 Vassilis Kavvadas, No27 Nikos Rongavopoulos, No30 Tyler Roberson ( 4 points, 1 rebound, 3 turnovers), Charis Giannopoulos ( 5 points, 2 rebounds,), No32 Vince Hunter ( 6 points, 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers)
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