Big wins in basketball for AEK and Aegaleo
AEK upset Panellinios in Kypseli on Saturday to breathe new life into the contest for third spot in the basketball league. AEK won 82-74 away and now has real hopes of making the top eight in the table that lead to the playoffs. Aris has now caught up with Panellinios in third, following its comfortable win over trouble-ridden Olympia Larissas 62-46. Olympiakos and Panathinaikos continued with easy wins over upstarts Kavala and Trikala respectively. Olympiakos won 90-68 at Faliron and Panathinaikos triumphed 93-68 at Trikala, meaning Olympiakos continues to lead the table by just one point. Aegaleo took a leap closer to safety with its hard-fought home win over PAOK. The Athens side won 78-74 in overtime and is now three points off the relegation zone that includes Trikala and Larissa, which lost 87-76 at home to Maroussi. Panionios stayed fifth with its 75-60 home win over Kolossos Rhodes. The league continues tomorrow and on Thursday with the 19th round. The games are Panathinaikos vs Panellinios, AEK vs Olympiakos, Kavala vs Aegaleo, Maroussi vs Olympia Larissas, Kolossos vs Trikala and Larissa vs Panionios tomorrow, while Thursday sees the big Thessaloniki derby between PAOK and Aris. Next weekend there is no league action, due to the cup final on Sunday. The recent riots between fans of the two finalists, holder Panathinaikos and league leader Olympiakos, have forced the Hellenic Basketball Federation to repeat last year’s successful experiment of providing no more than 600 tickets to each club at a ground in Hellenikon that holds about 4,000 people.
