GRE – Panathinaikos warm up for Greek Cup Final with league win over Maroussi

ATHENS (A1 Ethniki) - Panathinaikos may be struggling at 0-3 in the Euroleague Top 16 but they’re alone in first place in Greece's top flight after an impressive 82-68 win in Athens over Maroussi on Wednesday night.

The Greens followed up their 90-56 thrashing of Aris at the weekend with another triumph that will serve as a confidence-booster ahead of their Greek Cup showdown that’s coming up against Olympiacos.

Panathinaikos coach Zeljko Obradovic said: "It was a very important game for us.

"In many ways the result was positive for us in that it covers the psychological aspects but also in substance.

"We had on the court with us a team (Maroussi) playing beautiful basketball with good results, a team that battles in all its games until the end.

"My players deserve many congratulations because we played good defense and were aggressive in all phases."

Pana trailed Maroussi 8-3 early on but scored 10 straight points, including six by Mike Batiste, to go in front to stay.

Batiste ended up with 11 points and five rebounds.

Marcus Haislip finished with 15 points and Vassilis Spanoulis 14 for Panathinaikos.

The Greens hit nine of 20 (45%) shots from long range with Spanoulis three of five and his fellow Greece international Dimitris Diamantidis three of six.

Olympiacos are one point adrift of Pana in second place after rolling to a 92-72 home triumph over PAOK Thessaloniki.

Aris recovered from their mauling at the hands of Panathinaikos by recording a 97-83 victory over Ilisiakos.

"We were prepared for a difficult game, because Aris came from a major defeat and knew they would react," said Leonidas Kaselakis, one of the Ilisiakos players.

"We tried to limit the transition game of our opponents, but the longer the game went on, we were unsuccessful."

Aris converted 11 of their 13 fast-break opportunities and that made Aris coach David Blatt very happy.

"We were very effective in attack," he said, "energetic and quick."

Olympia Larissa fell 67-62 at home to Panionios and Kolossos edged Peristeriou 68-66.

Sasa Vasiljevic snapped a 66-66 tie by hitting two free-throws with eight seconds remaining for Kolossos.

In the other game, Panellinios defeated Trikala 85-77.

FIBA