With good defense as a weapon, Panathinaikos first sealed its ticket for Sunday’s final of the Greek Cup: 76-65 over Aris in Heraklion. At halftime, the score was 44-33.
The match was tough and Matias Lessor was ejected with a second technical penalty in the middle of the second period, with the score at 30-21. The difference reached 16 points (40-24) before the Thessalonians temporarily reduced it to single digits: 44-36, 51-42.
Dinos Mitoglou helped the “greens” pull away again (64-50 and 73-56 with baskets by Panagiotis Kalaitzakis) and reach the victory without stress, although Aris gathered the difference towards the end.
Kendrick Nunn was the leader of Panathinaikos with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Mitoglou and Jerian Grant added 10 each and Kostas Sloukas, Matias Lessor added 6. Antetokounmpo, Balcherovski, Kalaitzakis, Hernangometh added 5 points each.
Vassilis Toliopoulos scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half. Harel 11, Bloombergs 7, Bankston 6, Bohorides 5 also distinguished themselves from Aris of Yiannis Kastritis.
In the second semi-final, Saturday night at 9 p.m. in the same stadium, Prometheus Patras, after its “walk” to the quarter-finals with Panionios (88-48, with 16 points from Reynolds), and the cup winner Olympiacos, who yesterday defeated Peristeri with 87-68 (Papanikolaou 15, Laurentzakis 15, Right).The “red and white” will line up without the injured Nigel Williams-Goss.
The final of the Greek Cup will be held at Dio Aorakia of Heraklion on Sunday evening (7 pm).
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