One more victory
Olympiacos edged Ilysiakos 78-57 on the road for the second day of the Greek League, hence continuing undefeated in and out of the Greek borders.
The Back2Back European Champions began the game in an impressive manner and succeeded in leading 16-7 at 7’. With Spanoulis playing amazing defense and passing many assists and Brent Petway with Mat Lojeski offering offensive solutions, the team of Giorgos Bartzokas had a 12-23 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Also in the second quarter, although Giorgos Bartzokas tried many different quintets and plays, Olympiacos had no problem maintaining the difference above ten points, ending at half-time 25-36.
The “reds” lost their focus on defense in the second half resulting in Ilysiakos shrinking the difference as close as five points with the third quarter ending 44-51.
Mat Lojeski was the one to lead his team offensively in the last quarter. The Back2Back Champions of Europe did not even make one turnover during the first five minutes of the last quarter, they played with a lot of concentration in offense and the lead was up by 15 points (50-65) four minutes before the end of the encounter. During the last four minutes the players of Giorgos Bartzokas were also able to offer show-time and reached a 57-78 victory.
Τhe quarters: 12-23, 25-36, 44-51, 57-78
Ilysiakos (Liogas): Kafkis 6, Fakopoulos, Antonakis 3 (1), Smith 6 (1), Chatzis 16 (2), Dorkofikis 9 (1), Stephens 5, Vavatsikos, Ioannou, Tzougkarakis, Bonds 4, Anderson 8 (2).
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Petway 9 (1), Law 7 (1), Dunston 5, Spanoulis 3 (1 3p, 10as), Papapetrou, Sloukas 5 (1), Simmons 9 (8reb), Lojeski 21 (3 3p, 8reb), Printezis 11 (1 3p), Agravanis 3 (1), Mantzaris 3 (1), Katsivelis 2.
*Dimitris Mavroeidis, Stratos Perperoglou, Mirza Begic and Andreas Christodoulou did not make the 12 team roster.
DIMITRIS LIOGAS: “I’m happy with Stephens. His athleticism covers for a lot of holes and we could not replace him all that time that he had been injured. I would also like to congratulate Chatzis. He’s a pro and he is able to continue playing at that level. We had wanted to protect our team in the Cup game so as to be ready in Patras against Apollon. We gave opportunities to young guys and did not concern ourselves with Olympiacos. We actually did nothing in both games, but we were more together as a team tonight. Congratulations to Olympiacos that manages to concentrate on these games so fast after a Euroleague game”.
KEVIN ANDERSON: “We played against a unique team of 12 players. We gave our best. We played well for 35 minutes, but we did not have the experience and could not follow the score. It was a good effort though”.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “Ilysiakos played well. We did not have the necessary concentration. It isn’t even 48 hours from the game in Malaga. We wanted Law to play so as to get into rhythm after his injury. We did not play well, lacked focus and we lacked team effort in defense. The difference in the number of assists played a huge part in the game. The players have to get adjusted, but I used them all anyway. Maybe that’s why there are judged harsher than they should have been”.
GIORGOS PRINTEZIS: “We played a very hard game 48 hours ago against Malaga and there has been fatigue. Ilysiakos played well, they also added Chatzis compared to the cup game and we did not play as good as we would have wanted. We are now focusing on the next game which is extremely difficult, against Galatasaray. We are going to concentrate on that and try for the best possible outcome”.