Fragiskos Alvertis

Panathinaikos AKTOR has returned after three years to the throne of Greek basketball, adding the Basket League title to its Euroleague crown this season, by beating Olympiakos in the final game of the playoffs' championship series on Friday.

The series of the Basket League finals is promising to be extremely interesting, as Olympiakos has already managed to snatch home advantage from Euroleague champion Panathinaikos with its road win on Wednesday.

The Reds led throughout Game 1 of the best-of-five series and won 89-84 in front of a capacity crowd of Panathinaikos supporters at the Olympic Sports Hall.

Olympiacos was better than Panathinaikos throughout the game, made the break from the start in the finals series and gained the lead - The title is decided on three wins, the second game will be played in the Peace and Friendship Stadium on Friday (7/6)

Thursday was a glorious night for the Greeks in Europe, with Olympiakos embarrassing Barcelona with a 34-point triumph and Panathinaikos restoring its home advantage with a brave victory away over Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Olympiakos swept Barcelona 92-58 at home to tie their Euroleague quarterfinal series 2-2 and take it to a fifth game in Spain next week.

Olympiakos beat Panathinaikos for a second time in this season's Euroleague and now both of Greece's representatives are on an 18-11 record.

The Reds won 71-65 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium of Piraeus on Thursday to match their archrivals' record.

Panathinaikos came from behind to beat Bayern Munich in Athens on Wednesday and consolidate itself in the top-eight of the Euroleague, while Olympiakos saw its faint hopes of a play-off spot all but vanish after its home loss to Alba Berlin.

The Greens beat Bayern 98-83 at the Olympic Sports Hall and have risen to an 11-8 record, staying sixth on the Euroleague table.

AEK upset Panathinaikos and will face Olympiakos in the Greek Cup final in February, after the semifinals that took place on Sunday.

AEK was the host at the knock-out semi played at the Olympic Sports Hall and won 73-69 to book its place in its first final since 2001.

By George Georgakopoulos

Panathinaikos was upset at home by Alba Berlin with a 68-66 score on Thursday and will need victory at eliminated Red Star Belgrade next week to make sure it qualifies to the play-offs of the Euroleague. Otherwise it will hope that Maccabi beats Alba in Berlin.

By George Georgakopoulos

Panathinaikos came from behind to beat Red Star Belgrade 74-69 in Athens on Friday and rise to second in its group with half of the games played in this second stage of the Euroleague.

By George Georgakopoulos

Panathinaikos wasted a great chance to upset Barcelona in Spain, going down 80-76 on Friday for its first loss in the top 16 of the Euroleague, on the day it found out its win over Olympiakos in the Cup has been annulled.