Olympiakos earned its 11th Greek basketball title on Sunday beating Panathinaikos 93-74 in Game 3 of the finals to sweep its opponent 3-0 in the best-of-five series and return to the throne after two years as second.
Even if Panathinaikos this time had forward Esteban Batista on court, Olympiakos was not to be denied victory in front of a capacity crowd at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus.
After a balanced first quarter, Olympiakos broke free in the second to build a lead that reached up to 12 points (51-39) at half-time, led by a breathtaking Vassilis Spanoulis, scorer of 23 points on the night.
Error-prone Panathinaikos (with 17 turnovers against seven by Olympiakos) had no chance of coming back in the game after cutting the distance to five points early in the third period (51-46), with the hosts’ lead growing to 20 points (69-49) five minutes later, and to 23 points just before the end.
After the end of the game hundreds of Olympiakos fans stormed the court and celebrated with the players and officials of the club, in what must have been one of the most peaceful final series between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos ever.
PAOK beats Aris away to clinch third spot
PAOK beat Aris 77-76 away on Wednesday to win the third-place series 3-1 and clinch a spot in next season’s Eurocup.
Game 4 of the best-of-five series was once again played behind closed doors at Aris’s Nick Galis Hall, but there was plenty of action in front of the near-empty stands in a game that was only decided at the last shot, by Jake Odum.
The two Thessaloniki rivals offered fans a very entertaining series, but the stadium ban imposed on Aris for previous trouble by its fans deprived them of a great game that home support might have tipped in Aris’s favour.
PAOK took advantage of that and managed to win a ding-dong game and finish third in the league.
Aris has also applied for a spot in next season’s Eurocup, Europe’s second-tier club competition, and the Thessaloniki stands an outside chance of becoming Greece’s second representative in it.