A victory thanks to great defense
Olympiacos bested Laboral Kutxa 63-57 for the 2nd round of the Euroleague Regular season. Mat Lojeski was the top scorer for the Piraeus team.
The 'reds' began the game in a magnificent manner, especially in defense and managed to lead 17-10 at the first quarter. The margin was up to 10 points for the first time in the second quarter (24-14), but Laboral Kutxa with a partial 2-10 streak came close to 2 points (26-24) and half time closed at 30-26 for the team of Milan Tomic.
Third quarter was changing hands bucket to bucket ending 48-45. Defense was the key that finally gave our team the victory in the last quarter. OIympiacos kept Laboral Kutxa under 60 points and reached the final 63-57.
The quarters: 17-10, 30-26, 48-45, 63-57
Olympiacos (Τόμιτς): Petway 1, Hunter 9 (7reb, 2bl), Dunston 10 (6reb), Spanoulis 9 (4reb, 2as), Sloukas 3 (1 3p, 4as), Agravanis 4 (7 reb, 2as), Mantzaris 5 (1), Katsivelis, Lafayette 7 (1), Lojeski 15 (1 3p, 4reb, 2as,4st).
Λαμποράλ Κούτσα (Crespi): White, Iverson 8, Causeur 5 (1), Shengelia 11 (1), Perkins 7 (2), Hamilton, Tillie, San Emeterio 14 (4), Heurtel, Johnson, Bertans 8 (2).
MILAN TOMIC: “There are no easy games in the Euroleague, and we have to understand it and try harder. We need to improve our offense, especially in the five against five situations. I am very satisfied with our defense, as we allowed them to score only 57 points. With such a defense in October, we can feel optimistic, especially with the return of Printezis, Darden and Papapetrou, who are all playing at forward positions. On the opposite side, I don’t like the turnovers we are committing. At the end of the day I am happy because we showed our character and got an important win.”
MARCO CRESPI: "Talking about our performance, I think it was a serious one. The first point is that we played good defense against Olympiacos's offense and ball screen, that team's winning mark. Second, we had for sure not a high enough percentage shooting to optimize what we did on 'D'. Then, I think also that basketball is to enjoy and I think everyone would have enjoyed more if some of our balls had gone in the basket."