Karditsa – PAOK 97-78: He defeated, sent Colossus to 6th place and AEK to play out in the Basket League

He lost away from 97-78, a result that gave Colossus Rhodes the 6th place – in view of the 3rd round in the Basket League – and sent the AEK to play in the playouts, to win its place in the final octade in view of the playoffs. With Menenga leading, Karditsa defeated PAOK 97-78 in the closed “Yiannis Bourousis” for the 22nd competition of the Stoiximan Basket League and came even closer to the stay. In the Playouts and the “doublehead” of the North. After this result, Colossus finished sixth and in the second phase of the league will participate in Top 6 while AEK is seventh in Playouts. With 22 points Menenga was the top for Cardica who had 23 assists and only 9 errors. Guests with 20 errors could not remain competitive until the end. From the start the showdown was in conflict with homeowners looking for ways to manage White’s injury that left the match. The “doublehead” of the North imposed its rhythm and preceded 25-18 at 9′ with a basket of Towns. Papanikolopoulos’ timeout awakened the players of Karditsa. With a partial score of 22-4 and impressive Menenga who had 13 points in this period the hosts led 40-29 at 16’. After the missed pitches of the hosts PAOK responded with his own streak by closing the distance (42-41) with a three-pointer by Friedrichson in the breath of the second period. Karditsa had the lead firmly in the third quarter with PAOK finding solutions from Vangelis Margaritis. With a partial score of 22–7 the hosts raised the difference to 16 points (64–48) to 26’. From there on, the players of Nikos Papanikolopoulos were in control despite the many missed shots. The guests turned their defense into a zone in the last period but nothing changed in essence after Karditsa finished the match in the best way. The quarter: 23-26, 42-41, 71-59, 97-78 Karditsa (Papanikolopoulos): White 6 (3 rebounds), Buchanan 7 (4 rebounds, 4 assists), Kaberidis 8 (2), McCalum 14 (2), Mac 15 (2/7 tripods), Menega 22 (6/6 two-points, 3/5 three-pointers, 4/7 shots, 5 rebounds), Diros 15 (3/5 tripods, 6 assists, 3 errors), Christidis, Choukas, Avdalas (2 rebounds, 2 assists), Cybert 3 (1), Jankovic 7 (8 rebounds, 7 assists). PAOK (Nerantzakis): McNish 7 (5 rebounds), Friedricson 13 (3/6 tripods, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 errors), Margaritis 7 (1), Williams 6 (1/3 tripods, 8 rebounds, 3 errors), Arsenopoulos 2, Towns 10, Chiakmas, Schizas 2, Chairelis 13 (11 rebounds), Michalak 18 (3/6 two points, 3/5 tripods, 3/4 shots, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 errors). The team statistics of Karditsa: 21/34 two-point, 12/28 three-point, 19/36 shots, 34 rebounds (27 defensive + 7 offensive), 21 assists, 9 errors, 7 steals, 4 blocks. PAOK team statistics: 20/44 two-point, 8/23 three-point, 14/19 shots, 44 rebounds (30 defensive + 14 offensive), 14 assists, 20 errors, 3 steals, 1 block.