For Gate 7 and Spyros
Olympiacos beat Nea Kifisia 77-63 and everyone dedicated the victory to the victims of Gate 7 and to Spyros Kavvadas.
Olympiacos began the game in a high fashion. The 'reds' offered a solid show and reached a +8 difference (22-14) at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Piraeus team continued the good work on both ends of the floor and thus raised the difference to two digit levels at the end of the first half (40-29).
In the third quarter, the players of Giannis Sfairopoulos, playing impressive defense, kept the guests beneath 10 points and hence the difference was even broader (54-38) at 30'. In the last quarter, Olympiacos turned to power saving mode and hence the final 77-63 victory.
The quarters: 22-14, 40-29, 54-38, 77-63.
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Hunter 2, Dunston 8 (4reb, 3as), Spanoulis 6 (1), Darden 4, Sloukas 16 (2), Lafayette 6 (2), Lojeski 10 (2 3p., 8reb), Christodoulou, Printezis 9 (1), Mantzaris 7 (1), Kavvadas 4, Katsivelis 5 (1).
Nea Kifissia (Papatheodorou): Sylas 14, Liakopoulos, Popovic 4, Pesakovic 4, Mavroeidis 16, Psathas 5, Melissaratos, Duvnjak 9, Davis 3, Barlos 8, Vassilopoulos.
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "We had to show our readiness following a tough game that needed a lot of mental strength. We were quite focused from the beginning, imposed the rhythm, built a slight lead and with the good defense in the third quarter, that lead became even larger. We have had some blank spaces and this something we need to address, but our win against an overall well organized team was quite good. We continue with our effort and get ready for the game against Nizhny".
For the victims of Gate 7, the Greek coach said: "We dedicate this victory to the victims of gate 7 that lost their lives 34 years today for our team".
About the participation of the 10 year old Spyros Kavvadas with the roster, who made his dream come true with the help of the Make a Wish organization, he commented: "We showed our humanitarian face. He's a kid that fights his own battle and can inspire us all. Olympiacos BC and everyone around the team have shown how sensitive we are in regard to such matters and gave him some joyful moments".
BRYANT DUNSTON: "We would like to dedicate our victory to our fans that died this day 34 years ago. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We had wanted to play aggressively after what had happened in the game of the first round. We did that but especially in the fourth quarter we did not follow up".
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: "Our philosophy begins from defense. We are not happy with the fourth quarter, since we received 25 points. Despite that, we were serious, controlled the game, we keep the victory and move on. We look at one game at a time and we try to always get better. We are not afraid of anyone but we respect all opponents. Nizhny is a good team, they proved that beating Efes and losing to CSKA at overtime. We are going to win, like we do with every game".
MAT LOJESKI: "We wanted to revenge the first game; that was an extra motivation for us. We wanted to play a good defensive game. Defense is the key for us, we still have a long way to go and we now have a tough game against Nizhny, which nobody can underestimate".