Panathinaikos secured their sixth win in the Greek league. The ‘Greens’ were victorious over Aris in Thessaloniki with a score of 75:65.
The most interesting moment of the game occurred at the end of the first half when Kris Bankston, from an inbound pass with only 0.5 seconds remaining, executed a fantastic dunk, narrowly avoiding putting Mathias Lessort on the poster, as the Frenchman managed to evade just in time.
The play looked well-coordinated, and Bankston had a clear path ahead of him to do as he pleased. He decided to electrify the entire arena in Thessaloniki, took flight, and in the style of the most spectacular NBA players, ruthlessly slammed the ball into the basket with one hand.
This dunk also put Aris in the lead, as they led 33:32 after 20 minutes of play. However, in the next 10 minutes, the guests played much more organized defense, resulting in Ergin Ataman’s team winning the third quarter 23:11.
It turned out that the plus 11 was the decisive difference Panathinaikos gained, and the Aris players couldn’t catch up, even though they won the last quarter by half a point.
The top scorer in the game was Bankston with 16 points, while Vasileios Toliopoulos scored one point less. For the team from Athens, Lessort contributed with 14 points.