Showtime and substance by Olympiacos
Olympiacos was enjoyable against Aris that bested 93-61 offering both substance and show time. The Back2Back Champions of Europe reached an 8-0 record for the A1 and an 18-0 record in all competitions.
Olympiacos began the game well with tremendous energy and will to make good plays at fast break. And this was done with Dunston and Petway that offered both substance and spectacle. Vassilis Spanoulis was once again exceptional in creating plays and the first quarter ended 29-20.
The Back2Back European Champions substantially improved their defense in the second quarter. Begic dominated both baskets and the difference climbed two digit limits. Lojeski and Spanoulis were both creating and executing and half time closed at 44-33.
Fatigue from playing yet another game in less than 48 hours, lack of concentration and many mistakes, allowed Aris to stay close to the score in the third quarter. With a 7-0 partial in the first two minutes of the last quarter the team of Giorgos Bartzokas restored order at 66-54. Spanoulis with an amazing performance in the last quarter actually showed the path to victory since he helped his team run a partial 14-3 and practically “locked” victory for Olympiacos.
Sloukas, Mantzaris and Printezis set the rhythm, gave energy and substance in the last five minutes of the game, with the difference touching 25 points (86-61) at 38’. Giorgos Bartzokas tried different players and rotations, but this did nothing to change the tempo of the game and Olympiacos reached an easy 93-61 victory.
The quarters: 29-20, 44-33, 59-54, 93-61
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Petway 7 (1), Law 2 (4 reb), Dunston 16 (7reb), Spanoulis 12 (1 3p., 3 as,3 st.), Papapetrou 2, Sloukas 10 (2), Lojeski 6 (1 3p,5 as), Begic 15 (7 reb, 2 st., 2 bl.), Printezis 8 (5 reb.), Agravanis 3, Mantzaris 6 (1), Katsivelis 6.
Aris (Angelou): Bochoridis, Pelekanos 15 (1), Mitoglou, Gkikas 8 (2), Charisis 4, Vezenkov 19 (3), Sarikopoulos 8, Mourtos, Athinaiou 7.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: «This has been our first A1 game in the presence of our fans. Of course the time and the significance the fans give to the Euroleague did not attract many fans to the gym, but those who came enjoyed the game. Aris played a role in that by playing very well for 25 minutes. For us it’s the second game in 48 hours, there has been hypertension following the game against Galatasaray, we wanted to give minutes and we succeeded since no player played more than 20 minutes. Congratulations to Aris, but also to us since we continue winning in a very convincing manner. We have done all our work in the summer, we kept players that were greatly motivated despite having won a great many deal, but also by signing motivated new players. Practice is very important to us and is done very intensely. In the previous games that took place without any fans the players were trying but it was weird, we understood how it felt. Begic is not under testing. He’s just a player for special missions. He’s a player almost 2,20m. tall and it was easier for him to play against Aldemir or Aris’ big players. He’s becoming better through practice. Don’t forget that he had been off for 20-25 days. We are waiting for Simmons to come back. We added Kavvadas since there was a gap at practice. That’s why being healthy is important to us, so we can proceed the way we are”
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: “We should congratulate the team of Aris that came here to fight the game. We played especially well in the last quarter when we had energy and moved the ball well. We are not 100% ready and we keep working. We try to improve on dead periods. We are focusing on the game against Bayern which we want to win”.
VANGELIS ANGELOU: “First of all there can be no serious criticism about the game. Congratulations to Olympiacos for their course. Playing against the two big teams and especially when they have found rhythm for the Euroleague can give contradictory messages, because you usually play against them when they are focusing on the next big game and they are not mentally absolutely ready for such games like ours tonight. It’s a privilege to be playing against such teams and try to incorporate elements in your planning. We are very happy and proud with our effort”.
KOSTAS MITOGLOU: “We tried to fight the game in the beginning and we stayed close to the score. We made some mistakes and the difference started getting wider, the experience and the talent of the Olympiacos players played a role to that and that’s how we came to this result”.
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