A winner in Elefsina as well…
Olympiacos was impressive in Elefsina as well which he bested 101-63 on the road and expanded its winning streak at 20-0 in all participating competitions.
The team of Giorgos Bartzokas showed who the boss on the floor was from second one. Pritnezis and Begic dominated the two posts and hence Olympiacos succeeded from the first ten minutes into the game to make a two digit difference and lead 28-13 in the Elefsina home court.
Katsivelis, Papapetrou and Kavvadas after entering the game into the second quarter brought energy on the floor, offered both show time and substance and the Back2Back European Champions succeeded in leading 57-32 at half time.
Giorgos Bartzokas tried a lot of different formations and faces, but this never had an impact on the team tempo. Printezis was exceptional, the same with most of the Piraeus team players and thus the third quarter found Olympiacos leading 77-46.
The team tempo never eased into the last quarter. Olympiacos kept speeding up, the ‘reds’ made a lot of great offensive plays through their defense, got easy points at fast break and reached a 101-63 victory.
Τhe quarters: 13-28, 32-57, 46-77, 63-101
Panelefsiniakos (Skarafigkas): Nikou 7 (1), Papamakarios, Arapis 8 (2), Reilly Ross 10, Melissaratos 12 (2), Turner 18, Mantzaris 4, Avramidis 4, Chouchoumis.
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Law 5 (2 as), Dunston 2, Spanoulis 3 (1 3p, 4as), Perperoglou 11 (4 reb, 4as), Papapetrou 15 (1 3p,3 reb), Sloukas 6, Lojeski 8 (5 reb), Begic 8 (7 reb), Printezis 24 (2 3p., 10 reb.), Mantzaris 6 (1), Kavvadas 5, Katsivelis 8 (2).
GIORGOS SKARAFIGKAS: “Since there are no excuses in regard to coaches and teams, I would like to focus on my players and congratulate them for their mentality and effort into the third quarter and for playing in a way that helped Olympiacos have a good practice session. From that point on there is nothing to say about the game, only good comments to make about the coach and his team. They are impressive at the moment. I will not talk about the game, I will only flatter the coach, because the truth should be said. This team is selling their product in an amazing fashion and they can combine incredible spectacle with results and the main thing for the coach is that his team is healthy on court and the players have distinctive roles which is very difficult for a team with so many good players. I wish to Olympiacos and the coach that they succeed all their goals”.
DIMITRIS ARAPIS: “Congratulations to Olympiacos for their performance today. We have a game ahead of us against Aris that is very important for us, we’ll have to be mentally and physically ready and I hope next game finds us the winners”.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “As you all saw, Elefsina was looking at its next game, we were indeed looking at our next game, but since there were people looking at this game as well, we had to play with all necessary seriousness. So we had the chance to give minutes, have our young players play more in a free game that at least offered some good plays since there was no competition in regard to who the final winner would be. Good luck to the coach and Elefsina, we are looking at the Euroleague game on Thursday. Printezis has some discomfort in the foot, but the doctor will let us know of his exact condition tomorrow. I don’t think it’s something serious and I sure hope so. We are in the process of re-incorporating players, since Simmons has started practicing again, Papapetrou and Kavvadas got minutes and we give minutes in a different way than in the Euroleague”.
DIMITRIS KATSIVELIS: “The game demanded focus from the first second so that we wouldn’t be having problems. We did that, we got the difference and continued with the same rhythm to the end. Now we have a demanding schedule ahead, we have to play against Siena and that’s where we are focusing”.
ΙOANNIS PAPAPETROU: “I’m happy with our team. We won and we continue. I have had an injury, it’s in the past by now. Twenty victories in a row is an honorary budge, we try to continue this way, but we wish to play good basketball above all else, improve and bring exactly what we want on the floor”.