KAOD stuns European champion Olympiakos
KAO Dramas scored the upset of the season in Greek basketball as it defeated the hitherto unbeaten Olympiakos 75-69 on Sunday to all but rule out the possibility of the Reds finishing the regular season first. This means Panathinaikos is now two points clear at the top of the table.
Still reeling from the cup elimination to Panathinaikos last Monday in their first defeat of the season in all competitions, and playing without captain Vassilis Spanoulis, the Reds were a shadow of themselves at Drama. They also came up against a spirited KAOD who had nothing to lose.
Led by the great duo of J’Kovan Brown (25 points) and Edin Bavcic (19), KAOD gave Olympiakos a taste of its own medicine, as this season’s come-back kings were forced to surrender their seven-point lead late in the third period to trail 71-62 three minutes from time. December 29 will therefore be a Red-scalp day in the history of KAOD, that is now joint fourth along with PAOK.
Panathinaikos took advantage of the Olympiakos defeat and stretched its advantage over its archrival to two points after seeing off visiting PAOK 81-61 on Sunday, with 15 points and seven rebounds by James Gist.
Panionios has leapfrogged over Olympiakos into second with its 74-66 defeat of AGO Rethymnou at Nea Smyrni. Despite its reduced budget, Panionios is just one point behind leader Panathinaikos and has qualified to the second group stage of the Eurocup.
Ilisiakos moved off the bottom of the table with its 74-62 win at home over fellow struggling Kolossos Rhodes. Trikala and Nea Kifissia consolidated their positions at the table with their home wins over Panelefsiniakos (70-59) and Apollon Patras (72-54) respectively.
Aris steered clear of relegation trouble beating Ikaros Halkidas 84-67 in Thessaloniki, one week after clinching a spot in the cup final. This was its first game without coach Vangelis Angelou on the bench as he has left to work at Efes Anadolu in Turkey. Paraskevas Mouratidis was the caretaking coach for this game.
