By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos got the 81-75 win over Panathinaikos in the first derby of the season in the Greek league and now both teams have one defeat. The leading scorer of the Reds was Vassilis Spanoulis with 20 points. The best losing performance was made by Loukas Mavrokefalidis.
The Reds (10-1) lost 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 today’s result, the first spot will be decided probably in the second round in the game between the two “eternal enemies” of Greek basketball at OAKA.
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. He played for 7 minutes but the key factor for Olympiacos was Tremmel Darden who stopped 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 A.J. Slaughter who scored 18 points with 4 threes. Still they couldn’t get closer than three (78-75) in the crucial closing minute of the game.