Korivos loses to relegated Trikala and goes down
Panionios needed a miracle to remain in the Basket League, and that is exactly what happened in the last round of the regular season on Sunday: Korivos Amaliadas lost at home to already relegated Trikala and followed it on the way down to the A2 division. Also on Sunday Kolossos earned the last ticket to the play-offs and Panathinaikos finished the entire regular season unbeaten.
Trikala had only three wins and 22 defeats, but took advantage of the lack of concentration by Korivos to win 85-82 at Amaliada and condemn its host to relegation.
Korivos manager Dinos Kalabakos was inconsolable. He apologized to everyone in the town of Amaliada and said “I feel I am an idiot, for not convincing the team, each and every player, that this was a life-and-death game.” He also promised to find out whether anyone had thrown away that match.
Therefore Panionios, that failed to beat Rethymno away going down 90-78, miraculously managed to stay up as it finished level on points with Korivos but had a superior head-to-head difference.
Kolossos defeated Aris 73-67 on Rhodes and snatched the eighth position that will see it face Panathinaikos in the fourth round of the play-offs. The Greens completed a perfect regular season with 26 wins in 26 matches, thrashing Lavrio 111-57 away. Two days earlier Panathinaikos had put 30 points over AEK (115-85).
Such is the distance between the top two teams and the rest of the A1, that the game between second and third, Olympiakos vs Promitheas Patras, finished 104-69 in Piraeus.
Basketball Champions League winner AEK finished fifth, downing Kymi 82-76, and PAOK dismantled hapless Gymnastikos/Faros Larissas 91-51.
In the best-of-three play-off quarterfinals the pairings are Panathinaikos vs Kolossos, Olympiakos vs Kymi, Promitheas vs Lavrio and PAOK vs AEK.
