A formal procedure
Olympiacos bested KAOD in Drama 91-81 and reached 16 victories for the Greek League. Spanoulis, Shermadini, Antic and Law were the best for the ‘reds’.
The European and Greek Champions led by Spanoulis began the game determined to show KAOD who the boss was. And they did it. The Piraeus team led 26-19 in the first quarter with the only threat on behalf of KAOD being Palmer.
Antic and Hines helped Olympiacos broaden the margin above ten points. Half time closed with the team of Giorgos Bartzokas leading 50-42. Each time the team of Markovic tried to come back to the game, Olympiacos would react correctly and sent the margin to two digit numbers.
In the last quarter, Olympiacos with good defense and Shermadini doing a great job, reached a 91-81 victory.
Τhe quarters: 19-26, 42-50, 60-68, 81-91
KAOD (Μarkovic): Knowles 7 (1), Kalaitzidis 1, Akepsimaidis, Michel 4, Bavcic 20 (3),Kakaroudis 10, Zaras 3 (1), Ιoannou 7 (1), Palmer 29 (1), Row.
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 7, Law 10, Antic 10 (2), Spanoulis 16, Perperoglou 8, Shermadini 11, Sloukas 8, Powell 8, Gecevicius 3 (1), Printezis 4, Papanikolaou 6, Katsivelis.
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: We never thought the game would be easy since KAOD is a good team and a coach change is always helpful to a team. Mr. Markovic has been working very well. Drama is a play-offs team. We only had a day to prepare the game. We played as much as we needed to win. We had been slow in returning to our defense and in rotations, but we won at the end. We hope the fans enjoyed the game and let some steam blow both from the show they watched and the cursing and swearing they directed to us. I understand that we are professionals and we have to listen to staff like that, but sometimes lines are crossed.
PERO ANTIC: I would like to congratulate my team for the victory and also KAOD for an excellent game. We had been a little tired from all that traveling and maybe we relaxed a little bit, we won at the end and we are happy to have done it.
KAOD
ΝENAD MARKOVIC: Olympiacos is a very tough team with an excellent roster. We thought before the game that the Cup final and the difficult trip to Russia would have brought fatigue on Olympiacos, but this didn’t show, especially in the first half when their defense put a lot of pressure on us. Additionally, we did not play good defense in the first half, we played rather hasty and gave Olympiacos the chance to score 50 points. We played better in the second half, improved defense, moved the ball better, even came close to the score at points, but Olympiacos showed both patience and experience. In general, I’m happy with the team. We have been trying to change a few things, to change the psychology, but this takes time and it’s not easy to do all these in ten days’ time. Nevertheless, the guys have been working hard and I’m really happy with them.
ΚEVIN PALMER: Olympiacos played an excellent game, but I think we got better today also. We still have things to fix to improve as a team and be ready for the game against Ikaros. I would like to thank my team mates for helping me today; they gave me the ball where I was able to score and our fans for their support. I hope this continues in the games to come.