Once again at the final
Olympiacos beat CSKA Moscow 69-52 and on Sunday is going to defend its title at the Euroleague’s Final Four Final against Real Madrid.
The ‘reds’ started playing excellent defense from the first quarter yet and being completely focused in offense led 24-17. Antic and Hines did an incredible job, the same goes for Perperoglou on defending Weems and thus the difference reached 12 points (40-28) at the end of the first half.
The ‘reds’ defense became even better in the third quarter and the margin widened at +17 (30’). The Greek and European Champions maintained complete control of the game in the last quarter as well and it was how they reached a great victory and qualification for the final.
The quarters: 17-24, 28-40, 36-53, 52-69
CSKA Moscow (Messina): Teodosic 5 (1), Micov 3 (1), Jackson 7 (1), Κrstic 2, Weems 13 (2), Erceg 2, Voroncevic 2, Kaun 7, Khryapa 11 (2), Papaloukas.
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 13, Law 6, Antic 13 (2), Spanoulis 8, Perperoglou 8 (1), Shermadini 5, Sloukas 5 (1), Powell, Printezis 6, Papanikolaou 5 (1), Katsivelis.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “Many congratulations to our team for winning such an important game against a great opponent. It was a very important victory. We were very persistent with our defensive plan, we managed to stop Teodosic from creating, we controlled the glass since CSKA was in a rough shooting night and we only gave away six offensive rebounds. This is how we went to the offensive transition when we should and when we couldn’t we took shoots at the 24 second buzzer. Everyone played for each other on defense and offence. In these types of games the shooting percentages are rarely high and I think that our defense helped us advance. We played us a team and that’s why we are in the final. I feel great for being there.
Congratulations belong with the players, we are here to lead them and help them. It’s really important to manage the pressure against a great team with a great budget, experience and players like Papaloukas who has played so many Final Fours. Our plan on the psychological factor was absolutely right. I wouldn’t say we were relaxed. But we were less stressed than any time before during the season. The challenge of a Final Four doesn’t let anyone sleep tight. It was a tough endeavor for Olympiacos. We played almost all our games marked as favorites, while all of our opponents shared motivation and alibies. The fact that the team came thus far under such pressure from the opponents and the fans, especially with this Euroleague that was the toughest of all times, proves the size of the success.
It’s something I’ve saying since the first moment we qualified for the Final 4. The guys managed pressure very well. We cannot always control speed. CSKA only scored with free throws in the third quarter. When the game is interrupted that often, you cannot find rhythm. We lost a little bit of our speed in offense, but we quickly came back and broadened the difference margin. Hines has been having a career that is constantly going upwards. Form the second category in Italy he moved to Germany and then to Olympiacos and became a European Champion. A great part of Olympiacos’ success belongs to Kyle. He’s the perfect team mate. That’s Olympiacos. And Kyle is the best example of how Olympiacos wants to be playing. I would like to thank the fans for their support. They came here paying a lot of money in a very difficult time for the whole of Europe. And I would like to promise them that we’ll do the best we can to prepare for the final and win. It wasn’t the perfect game. We just stuck together throughout. The pressure had been great”.
ΕTTORE MESSINA: “I would like to congratulate Giorgos Bartzokas. It’s exceptional for such a young coach to have done such a good job. I’m not that shellfish to now acknowledge this only because my team lost. The truth is I still haven’t figured out what happened. Olympiacos tied us up into a bow. We couldn’t even breathe at times. I would change everything. Everything. Whatever we planned for, whatever we had said before the game. We were terrible and Olympiacos absolutely deserved the victory. Our goal had been to qualify to the Final Four, but we couldn’t make one step forward this year as well and bring the trophy to Moscow”.
STRATOS PERPEROGLOU: “It wasn’t easy. We may have won a great margin and it seemed that the game was easy for us, but we put a really great effort. We fought for every ball and every possession. But it’s only the first step; we have the final ahead of us. All of our players can contribute offensively, what’s important is that we did the same in defense. Our combativeness was the key factor. I wish I can join a club of really great players”.
PERO ANTIC: “What a great feeling. I cannot explain it. We are the best group of guys in Europe. No one has a tighter relationship than ours. It’s a matter of team work and brotherhood. We are always there for one another. That’s our secret. We were the outsiders for this game, but may be it was what gave us extra motivation. We dominated the game for almost 40 minutes. CSKS is a very good team, but we did a great job tonight stopping them. Last season we beat them only in the last second, but this year has been a totally different story. But it’s not important. In a Final Four, the key is getting the victory, either by one point or by 20.
I don’t know what the fans had been expecting from the game, but we played a very good game tonight. If I were a fan that had bought a ticket to watch the Final 4, I wouldn’t be disappointed by what we showed tonight. Indeed, we played as a team. Our coach has given us an excellent plan and we implemented it. It’s the best defensive game we played this season. It was a plan carried out by everyone and we made it. It’s impressive that we managed to hold CSKA below 60 points. Everyone deserves to be congratulated. I do the best I can. I try to play the hardest I can. We don’t care who we play on Sunday. We’ll fight no matter the rival. We focus on our performance and we are not interested in who plays against us in the final”.
MILOS TEODOSIC: “This has been the worst game of my career. I take responsibility for a great part of this defeat, because we did not perform at the level we had shown to be able to perform during the season. I’m at a loss to explain the reasons for the loss right now. A lot was decided at the beginning of the game. We started out very badly. Should you had asked me before the game, I would have told you that our team was 1005 per cent ready both mentally and physically. But it proved not to be the case”.
VICTOR KHRYAPA: “We were finding offensive solutions in the first half, but we were playing very bad in defense. We did the exact opposite in the second half, we got better in defense, but we did nothing in offense. Our performance was not enough to bring victory. We lacked concentration and we did not put use to our plans. So we were unable to win”.
AARON JACKSON: “We never got into rhythm and managed to show our true potential. Olympiacos overwhelmed us. The only thing we can do is take a bow. They played a magnificent game”.