Peristeri showing their strength in OAKA against AEK
In a match from round 4 of Greek A1 League, we had a duel between two teams that also compete in Basketball Champions League. Peristeri continues their impressive start of the season with a win away at AEK Athens, in the big OAKA Olympic Arena. They managed to come back from a 10 points deficit in the second quarter and 5 points in overtime and won the game 91-90 in OT. Let’s see some interesting stats from this match.
The first quarter was won by Peristeri by one point, but in the second half, AEK managed to get a 9 points difference at half-time. But the third quarter started with an 11-0 run from Peristeri and took the lead of the game. From that point, the game was very balanced. In the final minutes of the game, Peristeri had a 7-2 run that sends the game into overtime. In OT, AEK took an early 5 points advantage but were defeated after a final seconds two-pointer from Scoochie Smith.
In terms of stats, Peristeri had better shooting from beyond the arc with 8-18, while AEK had some problems from distance, finishing with 10-28. Their star players, Langford, Kendrick, Sant-Roos and Maciulis score one three-pointer each and finished with a combined 4-22 from distance. That was the main reason for their loss because those players are the most important players, and if their shooting percentages are low, the chances to lose the game are very big. Inside the arc, everything was good for AEK with 20 shots made out of 36. They should have focused more on those shots in this game, because they have an advantage inside the paint, winning the rebounds battle.
The main scorers for AEK Athens were Keith Langford (21 points and 7 rebounds) and Ray Kendrick (18 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists). For Peristeri, the main contributors were Steven Gray (26 points and 4 rebounds), Wiliam Hatcher (20 points and 4 assists with 5-10 from the 3-point line) and Moses Kingsley (12 points and 12 rebounds).
It looks like more an AEK loss than a Peristeri win, but the away team fully deserved the win. Both teams have a busy schedule because on Wednesday they will face good opponents from Champions League as Peristeri meet at home VEF Riga, while AEK Athens have to travel to Jerusalem to fight against Hapoel. To prepare for that, both teams used a large number of players for this game to give their star players some rest for the upcoming matches.
Photo: championsleague.basketball
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
