A victory in OAKA and a Reds’ lead
Olympiacos beat Panathinaikos 69-64 in OAKA and is now one win away from winning the league championship. Next game is on Sunday (1/6) at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
Our team started off well with Printezis and Lojeski leading our team offensively and thus giving our team a 4-12 lead. The Piraeus team held on the lead for the whole quarter, which ended with a score of 15-21.
Perperoglou and Petway helped a lot and so the team almost got the lead to double digits, with the half ending 28-36.
In the third quarter, the team kept their great defensive effort, with the margin extending to 16 points (40-56) after a Petway dunk in 30’.
During the last quarter, the team succumbed to a few turnovers and made some poor decisions thus letting Panathinaikos trim the lead to just 4 (60-64) one minute before the end. At that point, however, Giorgos Bartzokas’ players showed their great preparation and will and left OAKA with a 64-69 road victory.
Quarters: 15-21, 28-36, 40-56, 64-69
Panathinaikos (Alvertis): Bramos 6 (2), Curry, Fotsis 2, Ukic, Lasme 16, Mavrokefalidis 2, Diamantidis 18 (2), Gist 8, Maciulis 8, Wright 4.
Olympiacos (Bartzokas): Petway 12 (2), Dunston 6, Spanoulis 14 (1), Perperoglou 2, Sloukas, Collins 4, Simmons 2, Lojeski 8 (2), Printezis 13, Mantzaris 8 (2).
FRAGISKOS ALVERTIS: «Olympiacos played better for 30 minutes. We came back into this game late. We played appropriately in the fourth quarter, but that wasn’t enough. In this kind of games, you ought to be well prepared and ready for the whole game. We now have to go and fight for our season at Peace and Friendship Stadium, in order to bring it back here. We have to be way better than our last few games in order to accomplish that task. We can be better offensively. We have to play a bit more freely and have better percentages than today» said Panathinaikos’ coach in the beginning; he later pointed out «I expect something more from everyone, especially from the guys that have proved they can be much more helpful. Everyone gets the playing time his level of play justifies. It’s not a matter of pressure. All these years we’ve been living and performing under the same amount of pressure and I everyone’s got to adapt and perform great. It’s a mentality issue; you’ve got to be sharp and concentrated. You ought to be ready to play when you’re due to».
MICHAEL BRAMOS: «Olympiacos got a big lead, we tried to trim it but we ultimately couldn’t manage to. The series is now 2-1, I’ve got nothing more to say. We’ll try to do better at Peace and Frienship Stadium».
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: «I think we controlled the game the entire time. Besides the beginning, we were always in front. We had a really good game defensively and on offense we produced as much as our capabilities would let us, finding Panathinaikos’ weaknesses. Panathinaikos pressured us in the end, but we still found a way to win. We were focused, except for all the lost rebounds, against Panathinaikos, a greatly experienced team. It was a really tough victory. It’ll be a difficult game and we can’t let the 2-1 series lead fool us. We have to work on our game and on our mentality. No one from our organization underestimates Panathinaikos and their players’ quality. Our approach of the game will be that of great reverence towards our opponent. We don’t feel like we’re unbeatable at home. The atmosphere in the gym will definitely be a factor, but the 10 or 15 thousand fans won’t decide the game; the players will».
On whether he was afraid in any point in the match: «When you do this job, you can’t be afraid. Panathinaikos has built an empire with great teams and for some reason Olympiacos couldn’t win in here. Today none of us were afraid, neither the staff nor the players. Olympiacos has proved that he isn’t scared during the last three years».
On his players’ turnovers during the last few minutes: «We weren’t attacking, wer were holding onto the ball. For Collins we wanted a bigger body to bang down low and grab rebounds»
VAGGELIS MANTZARIS: «It was a great win for sure. Panathinaikos was unbeaten for a great deal of games in the finals in OAKA. Today we celebrate the win, but from tomorrow we put our heads down and work hard to lift the trophy in our home court. Our minds being clear helped. We played stellar defense, worked great on offense, when we had the chance we ran and hit shots and in the end we came out victorious. Having been unable to win in here for 25 straight games, we came to think of that at some point, but we all showed great character. For Panathinaikos to miss shots, it means that we definitely did something correct and so we won».