Greek Women's A1 26/2008 - Paleo Faliro 74, Paghiakos 66 (OT) - A Time of Troubles

While the regular season of the Liga Feminina in Spain was coming to an end with great interest, the regular season of the Greek Women's A1 League was finishing with little notice by even the Greek media. Paleo Faliro (17-9) finished of Paghiakos (8-18) by a score of 74-66 to end the regular season in Greece - but the league's problems were grabbing the attention.

Kastoria (0-26) had stopped playing. Siemens (5-21) has declared bankruptcy. And now, we learn from George Manousidis that Aris Holargos (8-17) was packing in it. Here is his report from Eurobasket.com:

Earlier on this year the team was purely dismantle as the American players left due to financial discrepancies with he team, the Head Coach left for the same reason, the Greek American Power Forward Panagiota Karagiorgos (190-F-84, college: Concordia (NY)) left the team too and then all the other professional girls couldn't survive so they left the team. The last two months the team is playing with girls U18 but right now and in the game in Larissa against Olympiada Larissas, the management couldn't pay the bus to travel from Athens to Larissa so the federation decided to dismiss the team from A1.
It's quite pity for a team like Aris Holargos who ended last season in the third position and went to the fianl four of the Greek cup.

I agree with the assessment of Eurobasket. Something needs to be done to bring the Greek basketball house in order - but I don't know what.

What will happen is unknown. However, Paleo Faliro and Paghiakos managed to survive. Here is the box score of the game.

Paghiakos, playing at home, appeared to be in control. They managed to win the first quarter 22-18 and hang on for a halftime score of 35-33. However, they couldn't escape from Paleo Faliro, as Paghiakos remained up by two points - 50-48 - with 10 minutes left to go. At the end of regulation, Paleo Faliro managed to tie the score at 60-60, and then scored 14 points in the overtime period to steal the victory.

It's so frustrating not to have any better information than an ordinary box score. I don't even know when the playoffs will take place in Greece, or how many games will be played.

Paghiakos hit 45 percent of their field goal attempts compared to 41 percent by Paleo Faliro. Paleo Faliro made up for it by out-rebounding Paghiakos 45-27, with 20 offensive rebounds. Paghiakos would also be the leader in turnovers, turning the ball over three more times than the visitors.

Paghiakos

Sonja Dafkou: 19 points, 7 rebounds, 4 turnovers.
Vaso Tsarouha: 13 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 steals.
Viki Tassopoulou: 8 points, 4 rebounds.

Paleo Faliro

Teana Miller: 25 points, 12 assists, 4 assists, 5 turnovers.
Kristin Haynie: 9 points, 7 rebounds, 6 steals.
Karen Mourd: 2 points in just 2:46 of play.