Just like the Champions of Europe
Olympiacos bested Maccabi Tel Aviv 78-77 in Israel following an exceptional game and proved that the Champion of Europe is present and accounted for.
The Piraeus team started magnificently and managed to lead by 11 (30-19) at the end of the first quarter with Vassilis Spanoulis having scored 11 points.
The European Champions continued in the same manner into the second quarter. Shermadini and Printezis were of assistance to the Olympiacos captain and thus the team of Giorgos Bartzokas maintained its lead into two digit numbers at half-time (44-33).
The home team returned to the game in the beginning of the second half and led 62-57. But at that point, the ‘red’ put their soul into the game and managed to lead again with Spanoulis. Kyle Hines actually gave to the victory to Olympiacos playing excellent defense on the last offensive play of the home team.
The quarters: 19-30, 33-44, 62-57, 77-78
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Blatt): Logan 15 (3), James 11, Smith 17 (2), Hickman 4, Eliyahu 8, Roth, Pnini, Caner-Medley 2, Ohayon 6, Planinic 7, Tomas, Landesberg7 (1).
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 9, Antic 3 (1), Spanoulis 24 (4), Perperoglou 3 (1), Shermadini 9 (9reb), Sloukas 5 (1), Mavroeidis, Gecevicius, Printezis 16 (5reb), Papanikolaou 3, Mantzaris 6 (1).
Group results
Fenerbahce/Ulker-Khimki 85-82
Caja Laboral-Barcelona 79-90
Maccabi Tel Aviv-Olympiacos 77-78
Siena-Besiktas (25/1)
Standings
1. Barcelona 4-1
2. Caja Laboral 4-1
3. Siena 4-0
4. Khimki 3-2
5. Olympiacos 2-3
6. Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-4
7. Fenerbahce/Ulker 1-4
8. Besiktas 0-4
The President of Olympiacos BC Mr. Panagiotis Angelopoulos made the following statement following the great victory in Israel.
“Congratulations to the team for the victory. It’s always important and overwhelming to win in a home court like this one. We kept our composure to the end, both the team and I. I’d like to comment that according to today’s decision on our objection, we should have lost again, since Planinic dunked at 40:03’’. We are going to forget whatever it is we know about basketball with what’s been happening”.
The coach of our team, Giorgos Bartzokas, stated following the game against Maccabi that “it was a very important victory for us for three reasons. First of all because we found out the decision on our objection just before the game and since it was a negative one for us the team has some extra psychological weight to deal with. Secondly, because we had to cover for the absences of Law and Powell. And the third and most critical one, because it’s always very important to play in this very tough gym. We maintained control of the game for three quarters. In the third quarter, we allowed Maccabi and its fans enter the game because we did not control their fast breaks either with good defense or with proper use of fouls. But we had some good reaction when we were trailing by 6 and at the end of the game. If we were to focus on one play, this would be Hines defense on Smith in the past play of the game.