A victory following a "shower" of threes
Olympiacos was enjoyable behind the 6.75m arc against Rethymno beating the Cretan team 82-71 at the Piraeus team premiere for the "Petros Eknomakis" tournament.
Giorgos Bartzokas left Dunston and Spanoulis out of the rotation to give them some rest, but our team had no problems beating Rethymno 82-71. Next opponent, the Russian Unics Kazan on Saturday (4/10, 16:00).
Our team began the game in the best possible way. Printezis and Lojeski scored all the first 11 points of Olympiacos to shape the initial 3-11 while a minute later the difference was ten points for the first time in the game (5-15). Next, the 'reds' stepped off the accelerator, a fact that the home team took advantage of and closed in 20-22 at the end of the first quarter.
Giorgos Bartzokas tried different rotations and systems. The game was evolving head to head during the whole of the second quarter. The entrance of Lojeski and Printezis once again offered solutions in the offense to the Piraeus team who turned the score to 33-39 from 33-30 with a partial 9-0 run. This was also the score of the first half.
Lafayette, Lojeski and Sloukas scored consecutive threes and helped the 'reds' increase the margin to 15 points (40-55) at 26'. All the more, our team, following a three by Sloukas at that point had 11/14 from behind the 6.75 line. Our team continued to impress in the third quarter which ended with Olympiacos leading 51-67.
Fatigue from pre-season was obvious in the last quarter and the tempo slowed down. But nevertheless, the difference was maintained at above ten points with the 'reds' reaching a 71-82 victory.
The quarters: 20-22, 33-39, 51-67, 71-82.
Rethymno (Skourtopoulos): Simpson 6, Schizas, Κoumpouras 13 (1), Fitzpatrick 1, Counsil 15 (3), Alen 10 (2), Kalampokis 1, Faye 15 (4), Sinis, Hilaris, Kravic 10.
Olympiacos (Bartzokas): Petway 9 (1 3p, 6 reb, 2 bl), Hunter 6 (7 reb, 2bl), Mantzaris 5 (5reb, 3as, 1bl), Kavvadas 3 (3reb), Katsivelis 7 (1 3p,2as), Lafayette 8 (2 3p, 7as), Sloukas 7 (1 3p, 9as, 2st), Simmons 4 (3reb), Lojeski 21 (4 3p, 2st), Christodoulou, Printezis 7 (1), Agravanis 5 (1)
MAT LOJESKI: "We improved our defense quite a lot in the second half. The 'key" to the victory was our good three pointers percentage. We moved the ball well in the second half and won. We want to incorporate the new players to the team's system, we have a tough beginning ahead of us, but we need to remain focused, play well and begin the new season the best way possible".