A victory in Patrai
Olympiacos edged Apollon on the road 76-67 with Vangelis Mantzaris and Mat Lojeski being the best for the winners.
The game began with our team “aiming” inside the post and with Dunston and Printezis doing an excellent job the ‘reds’ took an early lead and the first quarter ended 12-23 in favor of the Back2Back European Champions.
Giorgos Bartzokas’ team entered the second quarter into the same fashion with Lojeski, Sloukas and Printezis offering solutions in offense. Some poor offensive choices during the last three minutes of the quarter and lack of concentration in defense, allowed the hosts to close in at 26-37.
The hosts took the difference even further down (41-46) at the beginning of the third quarter, but within four minutes the ‘reds’ stepped on the gas and with a partial 15-6 the third quarter ended 47-61 for our team.
In the last quarter Mat Lojeski continued ‘executing’ Apollon with the difference being stabilized at over ten points (56-69) at 35’. However, during the last five minutes, the ‘reds’ succumbed to continuous mistakes hence the hosts came as close as 62-71 at 38’. Our team regained control in the last couple of minutes of the game and won 67-76.
The quarters: 12-23, 26-37, 47-61, 67-76.
Αpollon (Vetoulas): Ross 8, Argyropoulos 10, Kaperonis, Daniel 24, Wilson 11 (3), Lianos 4 (1), Petrovic, Pelekoudas, Molfetas, Milutinovic 6, Bolds 4.
Olympiacos (Bartzokas): Dunston 9, Perperoglou 7 (1), Papapetrou, Sloukas 7 (1), Collins, Simmons 2, Lojeski 16 (3), Printezis 11 (1), Agravanis 2, Mantzaris 14 (2), Kavvadas 8, Christodoulou.
NIKOS VETOULAS: “Congratulations to the coach and to Olympiacos for the victory. All the best for what comes next. In regard to the game, Olympiacos started better, built a wide lead which got to maintain throughout the game, we tried twice to come back, but lacked calm in defense. We wish to continue this way; we have a difficult game against Elefsina and want the victory to come close to our goal that is saving the category. I think that the Olympiacos defense was built on Bolds; he missed the first couple of shots and then got out of rhythm. He had a bad day, but this is also due to the defense of the opponent”.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: «I think it was a quite good game with many spectacular plays despite the fact that the score was not high, since none of the two teams was productive enough. For us, a major part of our performance was due to the 21 turnovers we made, since I think that they actually shaped the final score. I think we did a good team work; we moved the ball well and found the open player at all cases. Also in defense we played well for most part of the game, we took Bolds out of the game, although we weren’t as successful with Daniels. Congratulations to Patrai, I wish the coach all the best. We need to look into our injured players, since apart from Spanoulis, whose injury is very tough on us, tonight also Printezis has a lower back spasm and decided that he shouldn’t be playing more following the first quarter, while even Perperoglou was experienced a stiff bicep. We only got two days to work, our schedule is very demanding and takes the maximum of our focus both in training and in the game. We know it’s never easy to win in Patrai, we know that Apollon is at a good spot and with continuous road victories and the addition of Ross. As you know Apollon has 4 athletic Americans and it takes some effort to contain them, while they also good Greek players and a good coach. Good luck from now on”.
ANDREAS PELEKOUDAS: “Our goal was to be the most competitive possible. We managed that at times, we are now looking at the next tough game on the road against Elefsina hoping to do the best possible”.
VASSILIS KAVVADAS: “Olympiacos got the victory tonight, which was the goal for us. We stuck with our plan for 40 minutes; we were good in both defense and offense. We are now looking at the game against Milan. We have three days to prepare for this game and our goal is to win”.