By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos Aktor became the first team to advance to the Greek Cup semifinals after beating AEK Athens 79 – 72 in the Final Eight opener.
Dinos Mitoglou led Panathinaikos with 22 points, nine rebounds and four steals while Mathias Lessort had 16 points and 10 rebounds. The Greens led for the entire game after the first 16 minutes and were up even by 16 before AEK tried to make quite a comeback down the stretch.
AEK trailed 59 – 4 near the end of the third period and was behind 70 – 60 with 4:12 to play but approached 74 – 70 with 1:10 remaining. That was the closest they got though as Jerian Grant and Marius Grigonis made a pair of free throws each to keep their team at a distance.
Mindaugas Kuzminskas dropped 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds in his first game after a two-month absence due to a wrist fracture. Jordan McRae scored 14.
Panathinaikos will face Aris Thessaloniki in the semifinal Saturday (17/2). The latter advanced behind the heroics of Vassilis Toliopoulos who made the winning layup and scored 17 out of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to lead Aris past archrival PAOK Thessaloniki 76 – 74 after a comeback from down 16.