The quarter-finals of the Greek cup were completed yesterday and Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Aris and Panionios made their way to the next round.
AGO Rethymno 52-83 Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos started the match aggressively, played intense defence and showed a lot of patience in the offensive part, as a result the first quarter finished with the “greens” leading 13-24. AGOR stepped up with Kallinikidis leading the way but Panathinaikos used full court press forcing several mistakes from the home team and the half ended 32-40.
However the Greek cupholders started the second half very concentrated and finished the 3rd quarter with a score of 9-24 and 41-64 in total.The fourth quarter was a good test for the Panathinaikos players who tried new tactics and coach Pedoulakis had the chance to try new players and see how the can work alongside their teammates. Panathinaikos fans and coach are satisfied with Pappas and Jankovits, the youngsters who played their first game with the green shirt.
Panionios 82-65 Kolossos Rhodes
Panionios won Kolossos Rhodes way harder than the final score shows. Panionios had a great first half playing good defence and making good shot choices, taking a comfortable lead in the end of the half 48-31 with Marios Batis and Landon Milbourne leading the way. On the other side Kolossos were outscored outside the arc, and their defensive returns were slow giving Panionios the chance to score many easy points on fast-break.
In the second half, Kolossos controlled the rebounds from the start of the 3rd quarter and had good defensive discipline and transition used zone marking,so as a result the ”Red and Blue” got stuck offensively.
The turning point of the match was the minor injury of Marios Batis and the 4 fouls Kavvadas committed. After that Osby, the Kolossos center scored three consecutive buckets inside, forcing Panionios to zone for first time. Despite the Rhodian’s attempts, Panionios was more experienced and had better shooting percentage that led to the victory during the second half of the 4th quarter.
PAOK 63-71 Aris
The Thessaloniki “el classico” between PAOK and Aris was maybe the most interesting match of the round.
PAOK started the game well playing physical basketball, forcing turnovers but Mark Payne’s injury, who was the playmaker of the team and leader until this point, held the team back, allowing Aris to step up and managed to take the lead (32-34) by the end of the half, with Giannis Athinaiou and Lefteris Bohoridis leading the offence.
Aris had very good stats outside the arc and were dominating inside the paint collecting most rebounds and passing the ball to their Centers creating cracks to the PAOK zone marking.
Aris was patient during the second half, making correct choices at the offence and defending physically, managing to grab the win, despite Vaggelis Margaritis’ intense attempts (23 points), and the great atmosphere the fans created.
Ilisiakos 54-85 Olympiacos
Olympiacos played without Spanoulis and Begic and the long time injured Acie Law but this was no problem for the Euroleague winners since Ilisiakos was a way weaker team and the team’s coach had to start the team without their leader, Nikos Hatzis, the most important player in the roster.
Olympiacos were concentrated from start to finish and managed an easy win. It was a good warming up for the team for the upcoming game against Panathinaikos this Monday.The MVP of the game was Lojeski for the “Reds” while the only one who had a decent game was Anderson for Ilisiakos.
