By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Kostas Sloukas scored 29 points and Panathinaikos Athens defeated archrival Olympicos Piraeus 87 – 82 at home in Game 5 of the Greek League Finals to win the championship after 2021. The Greens came back from down 0 – 2 in the series, something that hadn’t happened in the league since 2002.
Following some major ups and downs from both teams, the game was a pure thriller in crunch time. Panathinaikos went up 75 – 66 with four minutes to play but Olympiacos came back to make it 81 – 80 with 1:01 to remaining.
Kendrick Nunn missed a 3-point attempt from way deep and then Nigel Williams-Goss created an open look for himself from midrange but misfired with 12 seconds remaining. Panathinaikos players were accurate from the free throw line and, after a five-second violation by Olympiacos, Marius Grigonis secured the win for the hosts with 2-2 from the line.
Sloukas had an outstanding performance especially in the first half with 25 points (9-10 from the field) in 12:18 (!), scoring 10 straight to lift Panathinaikos from down 23 – 28 towards a 48 – 37 a bit before halftime.
“Ι feel totally indicated from my decision, the offer from Panathinaikos was there for 10 years but out of respect to Olympiacos also I didn’t take it until last summer”, said Sloukas after the game. “We got a historic year, one of the best seasons ever for Panathinaikos and I have experienced incredible moments with this team”.
Olympiacos turned the game around in six minutes over the third quarter and moved up 61 – 64 near the end of the period. Panathinaikos reclaimed the advantage and kept it until the end.
Apart from Sloukas, the trip of Jerian Grant (15 points), Nunn (13 points, 4-17 shots), and Mathias Lessort (11 points, five rebounds) scored in double figures from Panathinaikos.
Alec Peters (21 points), Kostas Papanikolaou (18 points) and Nikola Milutinov (17 points, 12 rebounds) stood out from Olympiacos. The Reds began the season by winning the Greek SuperCup and Cup titles vs. Panathinaikos and took a 2-0 lead in the Finals but missed multiple opportunities to win the league title.
“The King is back”
After the game, Lessort couldn’t hide his emotions and he admitted that this was a miracle-like season: “I can’t say I predicted it, I just wanted to win as many games as possible and go as high as possible. We did it. We ended the year in the best possible way. We couldn’t have dreamed of something better”.
The only thing that Panathinaikos was missing to achieve the triple crown was the Greek Cup, but as Lessort said: “We didn’t win the Cup, but oK. It was a great year. We won the Euroleague and now the Greek Championship. The king is back!”
Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas when asked what was missing from his team, admitted that the injury of Moustapha Fall was crucial: “First of all, Fall was missing because he is the player who makes our team defensively better. We conceded too many points in the basket. But we had the fortitude, despite our shortcomings and problems, to have a chance to win. The effort was great, unfortunately, the stars were against us this year. Congratulations to Panathinaikos for winning the title.”