Invincible
Olympiacos edged Galatasaray 93-66 and completed the first round of the Euroleague Regular Season first leg invincible with five victories.
The 'reds' began the game impressively, with super tight defense and Tremmell Darden being on the starting five and providing solutions on both ends of the court, Olympiacos was leading 26-13 at the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Turkish team reacted, The Piraeus players were not playing as good a defense as the in the first quarter and Ataman's team closed in 49-39 at the end of the first half.
Olympiacos opened up the margin once again in the third quarter. Hunter, Katsivelis and Mantzaris were continuously providing offensive solutions and thus Olympiacos made the score 68-53. The team of Giannis Sferopoulos was impressive in the last quarter. Olympiacos completely controlled the rhythm with a tremendous defensive game and got the 93-66 victory.
The quarters: 26-13, 49-39, 68-53, 93-66.
Olympiacos (Sferopoulos): Petway 7 (1), Hunter 17 (10 reb), Dunston 8 (6reb), Spanoulis 16 (7as), Sloukas 1, Christodoulou, Agravanis 10, Mantzaris 15 (3), Kavvadas, Katsivelis 3, Lafayette 9 (2), Darden 7 (1).
Galatasaray (Ataman): Micov 8 (1), Erceg 5 (1), Jawai 9, Gonlum 6, Aldemir, Arandori 7, Aroyo 14 (2), Guller 4, Arslan 10, Arar, Ural.
GIANNIS SFEROPOULOS: "Congratulations to the players for their will to play defense. I told them that in the locker rooms at the end of the game. If we don't have the will we cannot improve the technical elements we need to improve. We certainly played a good game; we controlled the rhythm for 40 minutes. At some points our opponents we closing in but we won the game rather easily due to the will and the effort of the players. We played well but we can do better. We should improve automated reaction on both ends of the court. Despite having made just 6 turnovers and passing 26 assists, there are always things we can improve. That's why I told my players that their performance was good in regard to how long we have been working together but we can do even better. I want to keep a low profile. It was just a victory and nothing more. We thank the fans for coming and warming the atmosphere. We want them to embrace our effort so we can have extra motivation".
Next the Greek coach said that "we worked hard on the defense part since we began together and we wanted to put some new principles in our game, we have been lately working the offensive part a lot. We moved the ball well in offense. I always believe we can play very well. I have trust in my players, when they do the things we have worked on and planned there is nothing we should be afraid of. We need to stick by our defense, it's the key to winning big games, our players know that. We don't have the time to have only defense practice sessions. How intense a practice is differs in regard to how many games we have to play, we cannot do the same things this week that we play three games. The players have enough quality to understand what they need to do in defense, they have roles and they learn from their mistakes. They all make mistakes, they realize what they are and this is important".
ERGIN ATAMAN: "We started the game strong; Olympiacos played aggressive defense especially on our guards and forced us into turnovers. We lost control of the game, key players like Erceg were shooting poorly and we could not keep up. The difference in the level between the two teams is not the one we witnessed tonight, but Olympiacos played excellent basketball with Spanoulis leading them exceptionally well. Congratulations to Olympiacos".