A walk in Istanbul
Olympiacos had an easy evening in the home court of Besiktas and won 79-60 thus reaching six victories for the TOP-16, while the European and Greek Champions also count for five consecutive victories in this round of the competition.
The Piraeus team had some problems with defense and defensive rebounding in the beginning of the game. Josh Powell seemed to be having a good day in offense and led the way for his team-mates. The Turks led 15-13 in the first quarter, but as the time went by Olympiacos was playing his game and led 38-30 at half time.
Papanikolaou and Spanoulis offered the American center tremendous help in the third quarter and thus the Giorgos Bartzokas’ team easily maintained the lead (51-60). The European and Greek Champions stepped on the accelerator in the last quarter and comfortably reached the final 79-60. The Presidents of the team Mr. Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos watched the game from the Abdi Ipekci tribunes.
The quarters: 15-13, 30-38, 51-60, 60-79.
Besiktas (Kunter): Guler 1, Ozmizrak, Akin 4, Acik, Vidmar 13, Falker 13, Markota 2, Christopher 13 (2), Minard 11, Hersek, Ozer 5 (1)
Olympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 8, Law 8, Antic 2, Spanoulis 9 (1), Perperoglou 8, Shermadini 1, Sloukas 7 (1), Powell 13, Perkins, Printezis 9 (1), Papanikolaou 11 (3).
The statements:
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “It was an important victory for us just like any victory for the TOP-16. Each mistake in this phase can cost us dearly, each mistake counts. Our performance tonight was enough to give us the victory. Congratulations to the guys for the fifth win in a row. We were patient; the game wasn’t an easy one. We had problems with the defensive rebounding in the first half, since Besiktas grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds, especially with Falker. We improved defense wise in the second half, were patient enough to find the open player and get victory at the end. Congratulations to Besiktas, since although they don’t have an extra motivation, they don’t even have one victory in the TOP-16 up to now, but they keep trying very hard at every game”.
GIORGOS PRINTEZIS: “We weren’t focused enough in the beginning of the game; maybe we thought it was going to be easy. We have to look into this, it has happened before. However, we got an easy victory in the second half. The game against Barcelona is not an important one, it’s just a game like all else, just a home game. When we are into rhythm, any team in Europe, not just Besiktas, will have a tough time stopping us. That is when we play good defense, get the rebounds and run.
KOSTAS SLOUKAS: “It may be that we kind of underestimated Besiktas a little bit. We started kind of slow and we have to fix this. The game against Kavala precedes the one against Barcelona. The only thing I have to say for that game is that we are going to be 100% ready”.