ATHENS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens lifted the Greek top men's basketball league title after beating Olympiacos Piraeus 84-70 in Game 5 on Sunday.
Xavi Pasqual's "greens" and Ioannis Sfairopoulos' "reds" had tied 2-2 in the final series and faced each other in a do-or-die Game 5 at the Olympic Athletic Centre of Athens (OAKA).
After the first half, Pasqual sent in the third quarter Nikos Pappas, who tipped the balance in favor of Panathinaikos.
Besides Pappas (13 points) and Mike James (18 points), a large contribution to the victory of Panathinaikos was from Chris Singleton with 9 points and 17 rebounds.
Piraeus's Jamel MacLinn scored 16 points, while George Printezis and Brian Roberts each had 13 and Vasilis Spanoulis bagged 11 respectively.
Panathinaikos' players dedicated this year's championship to Pavlos Giannakopoulos, the former owner of the club, who died on June 10.
"I want to thank from the bottom of my heart those who brought this championship for Pavlos. He did everything to make everyone happy. I want all the fans to remember him for what he did," his brother Thanassis Giannakopoulos said in a statement after the match.
OAKA was packed as tickets had been sold out within a few hours of being released on Friday.
Among the fans at the stadium was Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, "The Greek Freak" as he is called, in order to watch his older brother Thanassis Antetokounmpo who plays for Panathinaikos. Enditem
