Olympiakos bests Panathinaikos

The leading scorer of the Reds in the game held in their Faliro stadium, was point guard Vassilis Spanoulis with 20 points. The best performance for the defeated Greens came from Loukas Mavrokefalidis.

The Reds (10wins -1 defeat) were defeated by Kifisia in the second week of action, so they were behind in the table. Panathinaikos has a 9-1 record, having played one game less because of the schedule. But after the derby’s result, the first spot will be decided probably in the second round in the game between the two “eternal opponents” of Greek basketball at Panathinaikos' OAKA stadium.

The new face in the derby was Giorgos Printezis, who came back in the action after 2,5 months. His previous and only game before today in the season was the first one against Panathinaikos for the Greek Cup, which the Greens won by one point. He played for 7 minutes, but the key factor for Olympiacos Piraeus was Tremmel Darden, who stopped the Green capatain Dimitris Diamantidis and scored 13 points.

After the second quarter, Panathinaikos was always trailing, but came back twice, due to the great defense of the fourth quarter, the excellent game by Loukas Mavrokefalidis (15 points, 12 rebounds) and the “killing instinct” of point guard A.J. Slaughter, who scored 18 points with 4 three-pointers. Still they couldn’t get closer than three (78-75) in the crucial closing minute of the game.