Difficult win in Maroussi...
Olympiacos played bad at Maroussi, but got the victory at the end and that's what's important. The "reds" gave the home team the right to question them, but they played as they were supposed to at the end and got an 89-84 victory.
It was obvious that the game would go wrong for Olympiacos from the beginning. The guests came on the floor with no pressure at all and doing all the simple staff right kept the lead of the score. Sloukas, Gecevicus and Printezis entering the game in the second quarter changed the "reds" offensive performance, but the kept receiving easy baskets. Six three - pointers for the Piraeus team gave them and initial lead of seven points at the end of half-time.
Most would expect that the lead would widen, but the home team never gave up and with Kommatos and Charitopoulos as their main offensive weapons kept close to the score, even substantially closed the margin in the middle of the fourth quarter, but that was as far as they went.
The refs: Manos, Pantazis, Tarenides.
The quarters: 22-20, 43-50, 62-69, 84-89.
Μaroussi (Linardos): Sakellariou, Demertzis 2, Nikolaides 6(2), Αkepsimaides, Elegkar 10(7 reb.), Charitopoulos 18(6 reb., 3 st.), Gagaloudes 16(2 3p., 8 as, 6 reb., 4 st.), Tsontzos, Κommatos 32(2 3p., 8 reb.)
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Hines 8(7 reb.), Law 4, Αntic, Spanoulis 16(8 assists), Dorsey 4, Pelekanos 3(1), Gecevicius 12(4), Glyniadakis 7, Printezis 13(1 3p., 6 reb., 5 assists), Papanikolaou 13(1), Μantzaris, Sloukas 9.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: "Maroussi had every to right to challenge us for 38 minutes.We played bad, made a lot of turnovers (20), we cannot claim for Maroussi to have played a pressing defense to give us a hard time. My players have not prepared themselves weill for the game and they don't seem to have the right sporting and basketball culture. I don't think they are doing anything on purpose. They lack some things. When concentration is at a low level and we are doing mistakes no one is expecting us to make when dealing with players of such level, then we play even worse and do even more mistakes" the Olympiacos head coach stated at the beginning and then added:
We did not prepare well on a personal level and the greatest part of the responsibility is mine. I ask them to respect all players and all opponents. We had been talking about preparing for the away game for the TOP-16. I believe that the team is going to react. We had a serious discussion after the game. It may be tough on us to play two games a week. Many of the guys play for the first time either against CSKA or Maroussi. Congratulations to Maroussi and wish them good luck".
The Olympiacos head coach also spoke about the verbal confrontaion of Yannis Gagaloudis with Vangelis Angelou: "the referees are to blame for all the upset. They got on everybody's nerves. They lost control of the game. I have known Gagaloudis since he was a kid and I had told Obradovic to take him to Panathinaikos because that had been his dream. He gave an elbow to Law and did not get punished for it. That's why I say that the refs are to blame. They cannot be referees just because their dads had been ones".
ΑNDREAS GLYNIADAKIS: "It seems we underestimated Maroussi and their situation. We made a lot of turnovers. Maroussi is always going after victory, their players honor their contracts with their team and we made a lot of mistakes causing Maroussi to stay close to the score up until the end of the game".
ΝΙΚΟS LINARDOS: "I wish that we come out winners from the games against the Turkish teams that are ahead. We do hope that Olympiacos continues with the Euroleague competition because both Olympiacos and Mr. Ivkovic deserve so.
This game gave us courage. On a competition level, things are very tough. We only have eight players for practice. But players always have a greater motive in such games. Players always fight, either they are paid or not. The Administration has been trying, but the debt from previous years is unbearable burden. Congratulations to my players.
As for the incident between Vangelis Angelou and Yannis Gagaloudis, he said: "Unfortunately, Vangelis Angelou had a talk with Gagaloudis. I don't have any issues with Vangelis. I just wish everyone leaves Maroussi at peace and whoever deserves to fail the category, let them do so".
YANNIS DEMERTZIS: "I think we made a great game against a full team. We played very well in the second quarter, we even led by 10, but we let Olympiacos return to the game. We were out of power at the end and lost. The 20 turnovers Olympiacos made are proof of our work tonight. We go on, we are professionals and we honor our contracts".