“Checkmate” with Vangelis
With Vangelis Mantzaris and Matt Lojeski being its best players, Olympiacos edged Panathinaikos 55-45 in the derby of the Greek League premiere.
The game began with our team scoring from behind the 6.75m. line with Mantzaris and Printezis to make the 6-6. The reds were behind 9-13 later on, but with a 7-0 run managed to lead 16-13 at the end of the first quarter.
The partial streak was 10-0 in the second quarter and the Back2Back European Champions were leading 19-13. The difference came to its greatest value (22-14) following a bucket by Stratos Perperoglou. However, lack of concentration had a toll later on and the many rebounds lost by Olympiacos allowed Panathinaikos to come back with a 9-0 run that gave them the lead. It was Matt Lojeski that gave his team the 29-27 lead once again at half-time.
Giorgos Printezis scored seven points in a row in the first four minutes of the second half and Olympiacos took a 36-31 lead at 24’. The players of Giorgos Bartzokas were playing a huge defensive game and Matt Lojeski picked up from where he had stopped in the first half pushing the lead to +9 (40-31) at 28’. The third quarter ended with the Back2Back European Champions leading 44-36.
Olympiacos continued having control of the game and maintain the lead (46-41) in the first five minutes of the last quarter. Kostas Sloukas was essential at the moment, Petway made the score 54-45 at 39” and actually sealed the victory to Olympiacos (55-45 final).
Τhe quarterts: 16-13, 29-27, 44-36, 55-45
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Petway 3 (1), Spanoulis 2, Mantzaris 7 (2), Perperoglou 3 (1), Printezis 12 (1), Simmons 2, Dunston 3, Begic, Sloukas 9 (1), Lojeski 14 (1).
Panathinaikos (Pedoulakis): Curry 2, Diamantidis 16 (2), Ukic 1, Lasme 2, Pappas 6, Gist, Batiste 2, Maciulis, Fotsis 5 (1), Μavrokefalidis 8, Bramos 3 (1),
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “The passing of Filippos Syrigos casts its shadow on the game. For all of us that are involved with basketball, he has been a very important presence and one of the most important in the last 40 years. It was a bad game. It kind of reminded the one played at the Sporting stadium. I ask for your understanding. The image of empty gyms does not become Greek Basketball. Congratulations to Panathinaikos. There have been a lot of bad shots. We faced some huge problems in the first half. Panathinaikos had eleven offensive rebounds and we were still leading by one basket. We said we wanted to balance this element and up to a point we did it”.
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: “I’m very happy that following a long absence I’m once again here. As far as the game is concerned, when you play such a good defensive game and you only receive 45 points it’s difficult to lose, especially in the Peace and Friendship Stadium. We have the victory to account for and we are looking towards the game against Unicaja on Friday”.
MATT LOJESKI: “I feel great. I’m really happy to have helped my team win. We were completely focused during all forty minutes of the encounter. Our defense has been excellent in every minute of the game and we succeeded in winning”.
ΑRGYRIS PEDOULAKIS: “It was a bad game for both teams. We did not find rhythm, we did not have breaths, we weren’t ready. We need to find rhythm through games and practices. We examine what we did, we weren’t good and we’ll try to fix that. Bad shooting was one reason for the many offensive rebounds. One of our problems has been that our big guys are not ready physically speaking and don’t have second jumps. I would also like you to allow me to bid a good friend farewell. I will not be saying more because I know he isn’t much into talking”.
LOUKAS MAVROKEFALIDIS: “It was the first game after the cup. We have been together for only little time. I think we are going to work better and present better in the next games. Olympiacos was better. They made a clear win. We have had some problems”.