Christmas comes a day late for Kolossos
Kolossos Rhodes forced AEK’s third loss in the Basket League this season on Monday, allowing fourth-placed Aris to cut the distance to just one point from its Athens rival for the third spot, ahead of their clash in the capital in the next round of games.
When playing on Rhodes, Kolossos is always a very strong side, and on Monday it overpowered Champions League challenger AEK with an 86-73 score to stay joint fifth at the table.
Aris now has a chance to join AEK at the third spot if it beats it in Athens on January 7, after defeating visiting Lavrio 98-77 in Thessaloniki.
PAOK only narrowly escaped AEK’s fate on Monday as it managed to outscore its host, Korivos at Amaliada by just two points (82-80).
Leader Olympiakos and rival Panathinaikos had no problems in their home games, reaching high scores: The Reds saw off Promitheas Patras 90-63 in the debut of Vangelis Angelou (a former Olympiakos player and assistant coach) on the Promitheas bench, while Panathinaikos registered a 37-8 score in the third quarter of its game with Rethymno to win 116-83 on the debut of Italian guard Alessandro Gentile.
Trikala probably scored the most important win of the day as it moved off the bottom beating fellow struggling Doxa Lefkadas 80-72 away, leaving its rival last at the table. Apollon moved away from trouble with its 75-60 triumph over promoted Kymi.
