Reds overcome PAOK even without Spanoulis
Even without captain Vassilis Spanoulis and three other injured players, Olympiakos overcame PAOK and on Monday to stay one point ahead of rival Panathinaikos, that had seen off KAO Dramas on the road a couple of hours earlier.
PAOK has beaten Panathinaikos this year but it succumbed 88-72 to visiting Olympiakos in Thessaloniki for its second straight defeat. If Olympiakos avoids a loss of more than six points when it visits Panathinaikos, it will likely clinch the top spot in the regular season.
The Greens faced a tough challenge at Drama but after sparring with an equal partner for 30 minutes they managed to emerge victorious with an 81-65 score from the game against struggling KAO Dramas.
Dominic Waters avenged the annulment of Kolossos Rhodes’s home win over Apollon Patras a couple of weeks earlier by helping his team beat third-placed Aris in exactly the same fashion on Saturday, through a free throw in the very end (78-77). In fact Kolossos required overtime to beat its visitor, in yet another gripping game on Rhodes.
In other games fifth-placed AEK thrashed Nea Kifissia 97-73, while Trikala scored probably its most important win this season as it saw off Apollon 83-70 to climb to ninth and steer clear of trouble for good.
The drop zone contains all-but-relegated Panionios, that went down 83-74 to Korivos at Amaliada, and Panelefsiniakos that was no match for host AGO Rethymnou (85-67).
