One step before the final
Olympiacos beat Rethymno 87-72 and is now leading the series of the play-offs semi-finals 2-0, being only one victory away from making the finals.
The European and Greek Champions began the game determined to put an early end to it and within ten minutes the difference was at two digit levels (24-12). In the second quarter, the Piraeus team kind of relaxed its defense and Rethymno closed in 40-36 at half time.
In the third quarter, Olympiacos managed to reach a two digit lead once again with the help of Papanikolaou, Katsivelis, Hines, Sloukas and Spanoulis. The’reds’ had completely imposed their rule on the game and therefore reached a relatively easy victory (87-72) and a 2-0 semis record.
The quarters: 24-12, 40-36, 60-53, 87-72
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 8, Antic 10 (2), Spanoulis 11 (2), Shermadini, Sloukas 5 (1), Powell 5, Gecevicius 8 (2) , Printezis 15 (1), Georgakis, Katsivelis 6, Papanikolaou 19 (1).
Rethymno (Yaples): Horne 13 (1), Kallinikidis, Pruitt 3 (1), Angelopoulos 6 (2), Τsochlas 2, Duvnjak 21 (5), Κommatos 12, Carter 3, Latovic, Pettway 12.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “I agree that Rethymno has played a good game. They have depth and good players in the perimeter. They have Americans; they have Tsochlas, Duvnjak, players with character and a team with enough depth. I consider Katsivelis’ performance to be positive, he contributed on both ends of the floor, besides the obviously good Papanikolaou. We now have some issues with Law and Perperoglou, we’ll see if we have them with us on Monday for the third game. We’ll try to win and sweep the series to make the finals. Law has probably suffered a stomach inflammation; the doctor says that he’s definitely going to be ready on Monday, for Stratos we’ll have to take it day by day. The only thing on my mind right now is that we remain healthy. The games are continuous, we want to be healthy, we only focus on that and on the next practice. We have proved that we are ready for games with high motivation and I think we are going to be ready this time as well”.
DIMITRIS KATSIVELIS: “It was a good game for us, we needed to find rhythm. Rethymno helped us in these two games because they are a good team, athletic. We found rhythm and we now have to focus to be ready for the third game. I was injured, I practiced yesterday and today I only tried to do what the coach has asked from me, nothing more, and nothing less. Whoever plays and abides by this philosophy is helpful to the team, this is absolutely certain”.
THANASSIS YAPLES: “We showed a better face today. Despite the final difference being the same as two days ago, we sincerely can say that we played one of our best games this season for 30 minutes. We had a good reaction against Olympiacos’ strength, Olympiacos has no weaknesses like teams in our level have, it’s very tough to find a blind spot to hit them on, I believe that we were competitive today and did the best we could. I told the guys in the locker rooms that I’m really satisfied and congratulated them. We are not used into playing every two days. The guys are tired. We have played four games in 10 days, two games against PAOK and two against Olympiacos. See you again in three days. It’s a novice experience but also a pleasant one. See you in three days”.
UROS DUVNJAK: “We can’t say a lot. We are in the semi-finals against the European Champion. What we had wanted was to try and be competitive during the series. We did not succeed as much in the first game, but I think that today we had been more so. We played a little better, but we still suffered. Olympiacos only needs a minute to do what they need to do to achieve their goal. We now have one more game ahead of us, so congratulations to Olympiacos and see you again in three days”.