One more victory

Olympiacos bested Budivelnik for the Rixos Cup premiere 80-72. Next game against Anadolu Efes.

Olympiacos was functioning well in offense during the first quarter with Bryan Dunston and Acie Law providing solutions, but the “reds” were facing problems with their defense. Gorbenko and Anisimov gave Budivelnik a 25-18 lead.

The defensive game of the players of Giorgos Bartzokas was improved in the second quarter, but not as much as the Greek coach would have wanted. Yannis Papapetrou gave offensive solutions and Bryan Dunston picked up from where he had stopped in the first quarter, with Olympiacos, nevertheless finishing half-time trailing 43-33 due to a bad two minute period right before half-time.

The “reds” had some plays in the third quarter but once again defense was not at its best and thus Budivelnik was keeping a 63-52 lead.

However, Olympiacos was the total master of the game in the last quarter. Defense was excellent, the “reds” kept the Ukranians under 10 points, Olympiacos got a lot of scoring through its defense and with Law, Sloukas and Petway leading, the European Champions reached an 80-72 victory with the partial four quarter score being 28-9.


The quarters: 18-25, 33-43, 52-63, 80-72
Olympiacos (Bartzokas): Petway 10 (1), Law 15 (4as), Dunston 13 (3/4 1p., 5/7 2p, 8reb), Perperoglou 5, Papapetrou 5, Sloukas 11 (5as), Simons 7, Printezis 6, Agravanis 1, Mantzaris 5, Christodoulou 2.
Budivelnik (Bagatskis): Ahearn 12, Gorbenko 13, Strelnieks 3, Anisimovas 13, Tishchenko 5, Anikiienko 6, Downs 9, Minard 11.