Greens alone at the Basket League summit
Panathinaikos is alone on top of the Basket League after defeating hitherto unbeaten Promitheas Patras 96-64 on Monday, while the Basketball Champions League obligations appear to take their tool on Greece’s participants, who suffered in the local championship.
James Gist was the week’s MVP in the league with his 19 points and six rebounds for Panathinaikos, as the Greens followed up their triumph over Euroleague champion Fenerbahce with an emphatic win over their visitors from Patra, including a rare 23-0 partial score in the second half.
All three representatives of Greece in the BCL suffered losses over the weekend. If Aris’s 80-55 home loss to giant Olympiakos was rather predictable, PAOK and AEK would have hoped to fare better than their losses on the road on Saturday: AEK suffered an 82-78 reverse at high-flying Kolossos Rhodes and PAOK succumbed at Trikala 87-78. Up next PAOK meets Aris in the Thessaloniki derby, on November 11.
Saturday also offered fans a couple of extremely close games, as Korivos defeated bottom team Panionios 68-67 at Amaliada and Gymnastikos Larissas/Faros snatched a 71-70 win at Halkida over Kymi.
Lavrio upset Rethymno 95-73 on Crete for its second win in four games, having US shooting guard Steven Gray score 25 points in 26 minutes, three weeks after his return to the Attica club.
