[Hellenic Basketball Association]
Panathinaikos triumphed in Saturday’s showpiece of the Final-Eight in Iraklio against archrival Olympiakos 79-68 and won another Greek Cup in easier-than-expected fashion.
The Greens are a different team with Nigel Hayes-Davis in their roster, and imposed their game on the Reds who were particularly poor in offense, having 1/19 triples at some point.
Contrary to previous performances, Olympiakos played a less team-minded game while Panathinaikos was excellent in distance shooting and fought well in rebounds.
The Cup winners took an early 12-6 lead, and after the Reds equalized for a 17-17 Q1 result, Panathinaikos stormed ahead in Q2 with a 16-2 partial (33-19) and end the first half 45-29 in its favor.
The second half was less spectacular but equally effective for the team of coach Ergin Ataman, who saw his players respond to the challenges of their opponents, and Greeks Nikos Rogavopoulos and Dinos Mitoglou stand out.
The Reds were unable to reduce the distance (that stretched up to 19 points) to single figures and surrendered early enough for a far from dramatic finish to the final.
To compound Olympiakos coach Giorgos Bartzokas’ misery, his best player in the first three quarters, Sasha Vezenkov came off injured and missed the last quarter.
Hayes-Davis, the final’s MVP, made 15 points, Rogavopoulos 14 and Mitoglou 11 for the Greens, while Vezenkov netted 16 and Evan Fournier with Tyrique Jones scored 12 each for the Reds.
This was the 22nd trophy of the Greek Cup for Panathinaikos.
