Olympiakos survives Nea Kifissia scare
Olympiakos came mighty close to a second consecutive defeat in the A1 league, but eventually fended off the strong challenge by Nea Kifissia in Piraeus on Sunday evening.
The visitors at the Peace and Friendship Stadium led for most of the game, as the European champions proved once again in the last 15 days that they are unable to beat their opponents to the majority of rebounds.
It took a last-quarter surge for Olympiakos to come back from 46-41 down to win 69-64, though the team’s fans will have returned home very concerned. The Reds remained in third, two points off the pace.
On the other hand Panathinaikos produced a spectacular second-half display to thrash AGO Rethymnou 82-63 on Crete a few hours earlier ending the first half of the regular season alone on top. Stephane Lasme and James Gist gave fans plenty of spectacular slam dunks to remember.
Panionios, in second, triumphed 89-81 over host Apollon at Patra, while fourth PAOK dismissed Ilisiakos 84-49 in Thessaloniki. The Zografou club and Ikaros Halkidas occupy the relegation spots after the latter went down 70-64 at Kolossos Rhodes.
Panelefsiniakos beat KAO Dramas 73-67 at home and is already looking good to stay up for a second consecutive season. The same goes for Trikala, that saw off visiting Aris 82-76 in overtime on Saturday.