Panathinaikos secured a spot in the semifinals with a victory against AEK Athens, while Aris prevailed over PAOK.
Ergin Ataman’s team didn’t shine but managed to outplay AEK in the quarterfinals with by 79-72. There was a tough battle in the first quarter, with the reigning Greek vice-champions showing better performance towards the end of the period. After ten minutes of play, Ataman’s team led 20-15.
AEK had a much better start to the second quarter, taking the lead with a series of 8-2, reaching 23-22. However, towards the end of the first half, Panathinaikos stepped up their game, managing to pull away and lead 39-30 at halftime.
The beginning of the second half belonged to Panathinaikos, as they built a 14-point lead with a series of 7-2. By the end of the third quarter, AEK attempted to narrow the gap, but Ataman’s team maintained an 11-point advantage.
In the final ten minutes, AEK performed significantly better. Through excellent defense, they managed to get back into the game, narrowing the gap to just four points at one point. However, the Greek vice-champions resisted the opponent’s surge and sealed the victory.
Dinos Mitoglou led his team to success with 22 points, while Mathias Lessort contributed 16. On the other side, Mindaugas Kuzminskas scored 18 points.
In the second match of today’s Greek Cup fixtures, we witnessed a major upset as Aris defeated PAOK with a score of 74:76.
The black-and-white team from Thessaloniki had a brilliant start to the match, and it seemed that a routine triumph was on the cards, as they ended the first quarter with a score of 25:11, leading by exactly 14 points at halftime. Aris managed to reduce the deficit to 11 points before the final quarter, but PAOK still had control of the match.
In the last quarter, we witnessed a major turnaround, with the black-and-white team’s offense completely faltering and Aris capitalizing on it. In the final minute, we saw an equalizer, which was clinched in Aris’s favor by Vasilis Toliopoulos with a layup 13 seconds before the end. PAOK, on the other hand, failed to convert their attack, thus sealing their elimination from the Greek Cup.
On Saturday, in the first semifinal, Panathinaikos and Aris will face off, with the match scheduled to start at 5:00 PM.