Did it again
'Thrylos' once again performed a miracle… The Piraeus team beat CSKA 70-68 at the Final Four semi final and on Sunday (17/5, 20.00 CET), at the Palacio De Los Deportes will be playing the 7th final of its history.
The reds made the big upset during the last five minutes. Despite trailing by 9, they refused to loose. That is, like always… Vassilis Spanoulis took matters in his hands, scored 11 from his 13 points at the most critical moment and his hands wrote the 69-66 score… The final 70-68 was made by Kostas Sloukas, who together with Vangelis Mantzaris, Giorgos Printezis and Brent Petway were the five players Olympiacos had on the floor during the upset.
All the players had a valuable contribution, Papapetrou won the battle against Kirilenko, Dunston, Hunter and Agravanis fought against the CSKA big players, Lafayette, Lojeski and Darden gave their all and 'Thrylos' took the lead at the most crucial moment of the game.
It was another magical moment for Olympiacos who once again will have the chance to climb the European top for the 4th time.
The quarters: 20-17, 36-35, 51-47, 68-70
CSKA Moscow (Ιtoudis): De Colo 18 (2), Teodosic 8 (1), Nichols, Jackson 9, Markoisvili, Weems 9, Vorontsevic 5 (1), Kaun 11, Khryapa 2, Hines 1, Kirilenko 5.
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Petway 5 (1), Hunter 2, Dunston 5, Spanoulis 13 (3), Papapetrou 9 (1), Sloukas 10, Printezis 14 (2 3p., 8reb.), Agravanis 2, Mantzaris 5 (1), Lafayette 3 (1), Darden, Lojeski 2.
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "We beat a great opponent, a team with a big tradition and an excellent roster. We are very happy. It's very important that we did not give up the game. CSKA was leading for most of the game, but our players showed character and correct mentality. We won a big game by being mentally tough and that gave us the game at the end. We kept CSKA at low scoring levels, it's very important against the best Euroleague offense.That's how we stayed in the game till the end. I congratulated my players in the locker rooms, but I told them we need to calm and be ready for yet another game, the Sunday final. Spanoulis is a leader and you cannot find such players easily anymore. Τέτοιον παίκτη μπορείς να βρεις έναν κάθε πάρα πολλά χρόνια. You can only find such a player once every so many years. When you are a leader, all defenses are adjusted on you. That's what CSKA had been doing during the whole of the game. What I tried to tell him during half time was to calm down, to let go of anxiety. He found the way to come back into the game, because he's among the top players in Europe. Our team is not just Spanoulis. I'm very happy to have some other talented players with us, that play for one another, just like a team should be playing. Basketball is a team sport, we have our leader, but our game is characterized by team work on both ends of the floor. We are a team in every sense of the word. What you are saying is probably characterizing our tactics as that of desperation, but I don't agree with you. We played with a short rotation during the last 6-7 minutes of the game. We had done the same against Barcelona.
So, it's not a desperate move, but rather part of the game". Asked about the mental toughness Olympiacos has been exhibiting, despite changes, he said: "This spirit is always with us, despite changes. It's important that a significant number of players have been staying with the team for years. That's how everyone else gets incorporated each year. This cannot be done from one day to another, it's rather build year after year".
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: "We believed in the victory until the end. We can't say that our performance was good. You win big games and titles through defense. We wanted the game more than them and played an incredible defensive game. Don't think that there is a plan about the upsets. There's not. It's going to be an amazing final, both the other teams are great, we are going to win the title and we believe in our team".