Olympiacos defeats Panathinaikos in Greek A1 Game of the Week

Another edition of one of sports great rivalries as Greek giants Olympiacos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens clashed in “The Derby of the Eternal Enemies” the pick of the action in Round 25. It has been a tough week for Panathinaikos as The Greens waved goodbye to head coach Dusko Ivanovic after an unconvincing season. A perfect remedy would have been defeating arch nemesis Olympiacos, but it was not to be and Ivanovic paid with his job.

Instead, the Piraeus club travelled to Panathinaikos’ home court and came away with a convincing 66-77 victory to further enhance its position at the top of the A1 standings. Indeed, the league doesn’t lie this season as Olympiacos is out in front with just a single loss (24-1), while The Greens trail in second with a 22-4 record.

Of course, form can go out of the window come derby day, but this time around Olympiacos are simply in the kind of groove Panathinaikos has rarely hit this term.

Olympiacos controlled much of the game on their way to a 24th consecutive A1 victory, while in attack they were potent in dishing out 21 scoring assists. The game opened slowly, but the buckets were soon flowing with the teams finding net at both ends of the court. Through the opening 10 minutes Olympiacos managed to edge to an 18-22 lead. The contest tightened further in a closely fought second quarter, a period that was locked 16-16, making it 34-38 through the long break. The visitors extended their advantage in an important third quarter, putting 10 points on the hosts (14-24) to lead 48-62 at the final split. The Greens finally responded with a winning fourth stanza, but it was too little too late as Olympiacos eased to a double digit lead.

Georgios Printezis put in an impressive performance for the winners with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists, while Tremmell Darden poured in 15 points. Stalwart provider Vassilis Spanoulis added 12 points and 7 assists.

Esteban Batista topped the score charts with 22 points in the losing effort and doubled up by adding 13 rebounds, he was followed by Nikos Pappas with 12 points.