By Aris Barkas
Aris was up 43-38 against Panathinaikos in the first half of the Greek League quarterfinals play offs Game 1 and that was the only thrill of the day. The Greens finally won by 15 points (83-68) and order was restored in OAKA.
David Logan (14 p.) and Saras Jasikevicius (13 p.) were the top scorers of Panathinaikos. Ironically, just hours before the game former Aris player Dimitris Tsaldaris was officially presented by his new team, Umana Venezia of Italy. Tsaldaris left due to economic reasons. Also Christos Tapoutos, Aris’s top scorer, played just two minutes because of his legal dispute with the team. Tapoutos is owed money and took Aris in court.
The game in SEF between Olympiacos and PAOK was not a different story. The Reds didn’t have any problems against a team that clearly already thinks about its summer vacations. The score in the first quarter was 34-6 for the home team and nothing really changed until the end. Pero Antic with 18 points (4/4 3 p.) was the top scorer for the winners and the final score was 81-53.
In the other two quarterfinal series Kolossos beat Kavala (82-61) and Panionios won in the home court of Rethymno (83-71).
Panathinaikos – Aris 83-68
PANATHINAIKOS: Maric 9, Perperoglou 4, Batiste 14, Sato 4, Tsartsaris 4, Diamantidis 8, Vougioukas, Calathes 7, Smith 7 (7 r.), Kaimakoglou 6, Jasikevicius 13 (5 as.)
ARIS: Mavroeidis, Kerusch 8 (7 r.), Tapoutos, Tsairelis 6, Davis 10, Krusic 7, Bochoridis, Bogris 2, Muldrow 15, Verginis 18, Dimas, Vezenkov 2
Olympiacos – PAOK 81-53
OLYMPIACOS: Hines 4, Law 4, Antic 18 (9 r.), Spanoulis 12, Vassilopoulos 4, Dorsey 6, Keselj 4, Gecevicius 3, Printezis 10, Papanikolaou 7, Mantzaris 4, Sloukas 5 (7 as.)
PAOK: Bojovic 4, Stiggers 3, Arapis 2, Aleksic 6, Duvnjak 1, Dikoudis 10, Pettway, Pappas 6, Giannakidis 3, Kalles 7, Kalabakas 7, Tsakaleris 4