Green troops boost Panathinaikos’s scoring army
Panathinaikos’s new stars, MarQuez Haynes and Elliot Williams have started shining for the Greens, leading them to a spectacular triumph at Thessaloniki over PAOK on Sunday with a record tally in the first half of the game.
Williams notched up 18 points and Haynes added another nine as Panathinaikos won 90-67 at Pylaia for its 19th victory in 20 games, while hapless PAOK goes from one loss to another (six in a row), without its key players Sofoklis Schortsanitis and Costas Vassiliadis who are out injured.
The 61 points that Panathinaikos scored in the first 20 minutes (61-32) are the highest they have registered in over six years, since the 2009-2010 season when they scored 66 in the first half over Peristeri.
The Greens are level on points, but trail in the head-to-head record to Olympiakos, that saw off a struggling Korivos at Amaliada 84-65 on Monday. The Reds are still looking for a forward to add to their roster in time for the restart of the Euroleague Top-16 later this week.
AEK and Aris continued winning ahead of their clash this Saturday in Thessaloniki that will to a great extent determine which of the two will grab the third spot. On Saturday Aris overcame host Kavala 77-71 and on Sunday AEK downed visiting Kifissia 76-73 to stay one point ahead of Aris.
Lavrio and Arkadikos scored precious home wins on Monday as they fight to avoid the drop: Lavrio saw off Kolossos Rhodes 84-73 and Arkadikos thrashed neighboring Apollon Patras 82-59. Trikala will not worry about going down anymore after dismantling Rethymno 87-58 at home on Monday.
