Olympiacos Pireus one game from Greek title

Olympiacos Pireus took control of the Greek A1 Finals series by picking up a second consecutive win over bitter foe Panathinaikos Athens in Game 3. The 64-69 success came on the road as The Reds visited the Greek capital and came away with a 2-1 lead in the series, and the club can now wrap up the title if it wins Game 4 at home on June 1st.

Panathinaikos Athens vs. Olympiacos Pireus, 64-69
Despite the 64-69 score looking tight on paper, it was actually a fairly one sided encounter as Olympiacos stunned Panathinaikos in front of its home fans. The visitors had the better of the opening exchanges and opened up a six point lead at the end of the first quarter, with the scoreboard reading 15-21. The second quarter was closer as both teams struggled to post baskets consistently, although once again it was The Reds who has the better of the period. With the halftime buzzer sounding in the OAKA Olympic Arena, Olympiacos led 28-36. The visitors came out for the third quarter in unforgiving mood and in the frame put Panathinaikos to the sword by scoring 20 and holding The Greens to 12 points (40-56). With 16 points the difference, Panathinaikos would need a spectacular fourth quarter to claim the win, and the hosts almost did it. An explosive 24-13 run brought tension to the game as these two great rivals fought it out, but ultimately Olympiacos held on to take the win.

Vassilis Spanoulis was the pace setter for Olympiacos with 14 points, 2 rebounds, and 5 assists, while Brent Petway secured 12 points and 8 rebounds.

For Panathinaikos, Dimitris Diamantidis collected 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. Stephane Lame followed with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds for the defeated team.