In Basket League, father may have sent son down
Arkadikos and Korivos Amaliadas will fight it out till the end to avoid relegation, while Olympiakos and Panathinaikos survived scares from Apollon Patras and AEK respectively on Monday to remain tied at the top of the Basket League with one game left to play to the conclusion of the regular season.
Arkadikos climbed out of the drop zone defeating relegated Kavala at home 74-68 on Saturday, leaving Korivos inside the danger zone with one game to play, as the Amaliada club lost 92-78 at PAOK. Notably, Korivos coach Haris Markopoulos lost to the team coached by his father, Soulis Markopoulos, who said that was the most difficult day in his life.
Korivos, that has recorded more wins on the road than at home (four against three), will now have to beat Lavrio at home on April 9 and hope Arkadikos loses at AEK to stay up and send the Tripoli team down instead.
Olympiakos scraped through the Apollon challenge at Patra with a 77-72 score to hold on to the top spot on its superior head-to-head record with Panathinaikos, while also shaking off the bad loss at Khimki in the Euroleague last week.
The Greens faced a determined AEK side at home and it was only thanks to their latest addition, Elliot Williams, that they managed to emerge victorious from the Athens derby with a 78-71 score.
Aris saw off host Rethymno 88-83 on Crete and moved two points ahead of AEK. Interestingly, as things stand, the first round of the play-offs will feature an Aris vs PAOK Thessaloniki best-of-three derby.
In other Saturday games, Trikala ensured it will stay up after beating Lavrio 80-75 away, and Kifissia held on to the fifth spot downing Kolossos 90-87 on Rhodes.
