The undefeated Olympiacos was running with 103!
Olympiacos showed off his power in Rethymno. The Back2Back European Champions won 103-79 and continue undefeated in and out of Greece.
Olympiacos began the game determined to establish superiority from the very first second. And succeeded in doing so since with amazing defensive play managed to lead 2-13 and 4-19. Spanoulis was passing numerous assists, Perperoglou, Begic and Petway were taking advantage of them and the first quarter ended 12-23 in favor of the Back2Back Champions of Europe.
In the second quarter the team offered both substance and show time. Law and Lojeski took over offensive action, Perperoglou continued in the same pace as in the first quarter and the score reached its highest difference mark up to the point (29-47) at 19’ following a three by Acie Law. Half time found the reds leading 33-51.
Giorgos Printezis with seven consecutive points sent the difference to its highest mark (33-58) only two minutes into the second half. Printezis was exceptional in the beginning of the second half, Spanoulis kept on passing assists and the difference seemed to stabilize at above 20 points (40-62) four minutes before the end of the third quarter. The Back2Back European Champions playing as a team in offense and bringing out energy on both ends of the floor found no problems in maintaining the difference above 20 points (52-77) at 28’ with the quarter ending 54-79.
The players of Giorgos Bartzokas maintained the score at above 20 points of difference in the last quarter, the Greek coach tried different quintets and faces and the game ended 79-103 for Olympiacos.
Τhe quarters: 12-23, 33-51, 54-79, 79-103
Rethymno (Yaples): Heart 8, Kallinikidis, Koumpouras 2, Angelopoulos 5, Wright 10 (2), Kalampokis 6, Kanonidis, Sinis 7 (1), Latovic 9 (1), Alexander 8, Arbert 8 (2), Gabriel 16 (1).
Olympiacos (Bartzokas): Petway 13 (1), Law 11 (1 3p, 5as), Dunston 9 (8 reb), Spanoulis 5 (1 3p, 9as), Perperoglou 20 (2 3p, 5 reb), Sloukas 4, Lojeski 10 (1 3p, 6 reb, 5as), Begic 10, Printezis 11 (1), Agravanis 2, Mantzaris 2, Katsivelis 6.
THANASSIS YAPLES: “When you don’t make a serious start against Olympiacos you have no luck to ask for something more, when you don’t fight for every loose ball. The game actually ended in favor of the winner in the first seven minutes when Olympiacos built that substantial difference. As for how Rethymno has been playing against big teams in the three years I’m in Rethymno, what we aim is to forfeit destruction of the game, but rather let the fans enjoy a basketball game. We don’t want to stop the rhythm and lower the tempo. Rethymno will continue prioritizing show time and put score differences at second place. The Championship begins for us next Sunday. There are no excuses, we are a team that has spent a lot of time together and on Sunday we are going to see where this team can go”.
DAMIR LATOVIC: “We see the games against Olympiacos and Panathinaikos as celebrations. It’s only a joy playing against these teams. Tonight’s game has been very tough. I would say this was a very good practice for us in view of our game against Elefsina”.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “It was a very nice game with many spectacular plays. Of course with not as much excitement as to score variations. I think that we were serious from the beginning and no matter how many problems the opponent posed we had answers for all of them. We built a 20 points difference for the first half which we maintained. Rethymno is very good for yet another season and they have chosen their foreigners wisely to play the style of basketball that the fans and their president enjoy. I think no one should be upset by how the match evolved. We wanted to give minutes to those recovering from injuries, especially to Sloukas who had been away for 10 days. I would also like to say something about Petway. It’s great for a team like Olympiacos to be chosing players that have played for other Greek League teams. This has been happening in Spain, in Italy, in Israel, everywhere. Strong teams, top teams, use to sign players from teams that have originally brought in the players and have shown them the secrets of European basketball. I would like to “thank” Rethymno for preparing Petway, who is a very athletic player and is always serious about the way he works and came to us quite ready. I would like to thank the coach and everyone who has worked with him. It’s very important for us to be signing a player that has played here because the intel we have on the player is the best possible he had been playing in our country…. If reporters stop writing about the undefeated record, then it will leave your thoughts. Because being undefeated is not in our thoughts. Unfortunately starting with minus 2 points in the Greek League leaves no margin for error in opposite to the Euroleague where we have almost secured qualification to the TOP-16 which had also been our first target. We have quite good and quite a few players as to keep the game rhythm in high tempo to the end and remain fresher from our opponents and that’s what we’ve been doing”
DIMITRIS KATSIVELIS: “We had wanted to start focused especially defense wise. Also, through defense, we had wanted to gather some easy score and get some easy short which I think we did. We have to work even harder at each practice because all upcoming games in both the Greek League and the Euroleague are tough ones”.
BRENT PETWAY: “We knew it would be a very tough game especially due to the way Rethymno plays, it’s a very weird style. We entered the game focused, played right in defense from the beginning and this got us into rhythm. It was an especially difficult game for me, a strange game emotionally wise, particularly following my honorary commendation, but as soon as the game started I tried to help my team win”.