By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus held back an AEK Athens comeback attempt from down 18 before getting a 76 – 70 win to qualify to the Greek Cup Final. The Reds are back in the Final after four years and will face archrival and defending champion Panathinaikos Athens for the title.
AEK was trailing 60 – 42 early in the fourth period but managed to cut that margin to 66 – 61 with 2:38 to play. Thomas Walkup drained a 3-pointer and then Kostas Sloukas hit the layup to put Olympiacos up by 10. After two free throws by Dimitris Flionis, Kostas Papanikolaou made it 73 – 63 with 59 seconds remaining to seal the win for his team.
Papanikolaou scored a team-high 16 points, Sasha Vezenkov posted 15 points plus nine rebounds, Sloukas finished with 12 points plus five assists while Hassan Martin put up 11 points plus seven boards for Olympiacos.
Ian Hummer led all scorers with 26 points while Flionis dropped 18 points for an AEK team that was missing guards Andy Rautins and Braian Angola.
Earlier on Friday, Panathinaikos defeated Promitheas Patras thanks to a strong second half. Olympiacos and Panathinaikos are meeting each other once again in the Cup Final for the first time after 2013.