Olympiacos wins Panathinaikos for the first day of Greek Basketball League

Olympiacos hosted (without fans) and defeated Panathinaikos for the first day of Greek Basketball League. Both teams have some injured players but Roko Leni Ukić followed the his team to SEF. Panathinaikos had won the last four games against Olympiacos, 3 games for the play offs finals and the cup final. Olympiacos' captain Vasilis Spanoulis had played for Panathinaikos and Panathinaikos' center Loukas Mavrokefalidis has played for Olympiacos. Vasilis Spanoulis and Dimitris Diamantidis score 11 points on average when they play against Panathinaikos and Olympiacos respectively. The three referees were Christos Christodoulou, Spyros Gontas and Christos Panagiotou. Mantzaris, Spanoulis, Perperoglou, Printezis and Simmons the starting five for Olympiacos. Gist, Lasme, Diamantidis, Pappas and Mačiulis the starting five for Panathinaikos. First attack for Panathinaikos, Diamantidis missed the shot, Perperoglou also missed the shot for Olympiacos. Mantzaris scored the first points for Olympiacos for this season, with a three points shot. Lasme scored the first points for Panathinaikos, after 3 minutes after the beginning. Panathinaikos played good defense for 8 minutes Olympiacos scored mainly with free throws and three points shots in the first quarter, having 2/9 two points shots. With those two field goals Olympiacos finished the first quarter leading the score by three, 16-13. First quarter finished with 3/3 fast breaks for Panathinaikos and 3/7 three points shots for Olympiacos. Panathinaikos started second quarter without scoring for 2 minutes and 20 seconds, so Olympiacos broadened the difference to 22-14, with 5/10 three points shots. Both team continued with bad shooting percentages 27% for Olympiacos and 36% for Panathinaikos in two points shots, so the second quarter was less productive for Olympiacos and the same poor for Panathinaikos. Matt Lojeski with two free throws in the last 2 seconds gave the lead to Olympiacos for the halftime and became the first player who scored 10 points. Third quarter started with Printezis scoring a three points shot and a goal-foul. Very bad offensive play by Panathinaikos who up to third quarter has 25% in free throws, 35% in two points shots and 18% in three points shots. Bad quarter was marked with a technical foul for Panathinaikos' coach Argyris Pedoulakis due to complaining. Panathinaikos scored only 9 points in third quarter so the fourth quarter started with Olympiacos leading the score by eight points. Simmons started fourth quarter with a goal-foul. Panathinaikos tried to lower the difference with three points shots which were mainly unsuccessful. Four minutes before the end Panathinaikos had already four team fouls while Olympiacos had none. Sloukas scored five consecutive points which maintained a safe difference. 60 seconds before the end Petway scored a three point shot and raised the difference to 9 points. Diamantidis turnover and unsportsmanlike foul ended the game. It was a tight game with a lot of tactics and poor shooting percentages. Both team collected 40 rebounds which and made 16 turnovers. Partial quarters' scores: 16-13, 13-14, 15-9, 11-9 Quarters' scores: 16-13, 29-27, 44-36, 55-45

Olympiacos. Begić, Spanoulis 2, Agravanis, Printezis 12(1), Dunston, Petway 3(1), Simmons 2,
Sloukas 9(1), Katsivelis, Mantzaris 7(2), Lojeski 14(1), Perperoglou 3(1)

Panathinaikos: Ukić 1, Diamantidis 16, Bramos 3. Pappas 6, Curry 2, Giankovits, Mačiulis, Fotsis 5, Gist, Mavrokefalidis 9, Batiste 2, Lasme 2.

Greece wins Russia in Eurobasket Slovenia second day

Greece wins Russia with 80-71 in Eurobasket Slovenia second day. Greece was leading the score even with 22 points but 5 minutes before the end Shved started scoring and reduced the difference at 8 points with a 18-4 run. Greece had Spanoulis, Perperoglou, Papanikolaou, Mavrokefalidis and Kaimakoglou with over 10 points. For Russia Shved led the score with 17 points and Karasev the rebounds with 7 collected. Both teams had a bad day at 3 points shooting with about 33% accuracy. Vassilis Spanoulis suffered a light injury and didn't played in the last quarter. Greece finished the game with 27 bench points proving that his biggest advantage is the complete roster. Last time Greece defeated Russia in official game was in 2005 Eurobasket when Greece won Russia with 66-61 and since then Russia won in 2007 Eurobasket with 61-53, in 2009 Eurobasket with 68-65, 2010 Wold Basketball Championship with 73-69 and in 2011 Eurobasket with 83-67.

22/09/2005 Ρωσία-Ελλάδα 61-66 ΕΥΡΩΜΠΑΣΚΕΤ200

22/09/2005 Ρωσία-Ελλάδα 61-66 ΕΥΡΩΜΠΑΣΚΕΤ

Greece wins Sweden in Eurobasket Slovenia first day

Greece wins Sweden with 79-51 in Eurobasket Slovenia first day. For Greece all twelve players scored which shows the type of basketball that Greece prefers. Spanoulis scored 12 points and Mavrokefalidis gained 9 rebounds for Greece while for Sweden Taylor scored 16 points and Kjellbom gained 5 rebounds.Sweden finished the game with 36% shot accuracy and Greece with 57.4% shooting accuracy.