An exhibition of power by Olympiacos
Olympiacos made a case of showing off his dynamic against Zadar for the champions' premiere at the Dogus Basketball Tournament that's been taking place in Zadar. Olympiacos will be playing tomorrow against Bayern Munich at 20.30.
Our team began the game in an impressive manner and succeeded in making a 0-11 streak. However, defense was not equally good later in the game and the home team closed in 15-18 at the end of the first quarter.
'Thrylos' had the upper hand throughout the second quarter. Lojeski and Tsairelis offered offensive solutions and half time closed with the score 30-35 for the team of Giannis Sfairopoulos.
Olympiacos made an excellent beginning in the third quarter and with continuous threes by Strawberry and Athinaiou the difference reached its peak up to that point (32-45 at 23'). Two free throws by Matt Lojeski made the score 48-63 at 29:30'' and the third quarter ended 50-63 for the Greek Champions. With a 0-8 streak at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Olympiacos practically put an end to the game (50-71 at 33').
During the remaining time, Giannis Sfairopoulos tried different rotations and Olympiacos reached a comfortable victory.
The quarters: 15-18, 30-35, 50-63, 62-85
Zadar (Nazor) : Pasalic 5 (1), Barac 11 (3), Bosnjak, Ramljak 14, Cosey 10 (1), Marinkovic 2, Jurica 2, Basic 7 (1), Sirko 2, Sango 3 (1), Vranjes 4, Kraljevic 2.
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Agravanis 8 (2/5 3p, 5reb, 1as, 1st), Αthinaiou 5 (1/2 3p, 5reb, 3as), Young 10 (4reb), Strawberry 5 (1/3 3p, 3reb, 4as, 1st), Papapetrou 11 (5/5 2p, 1reb, 1as, 2st), Kavvadas 9 (4reb, 1st, 1bl), Kalles, Lojeski 15 (2/3 3p, 3reb, 1st), Mantzaris 3 (1 3p, 2reb, 3as), Mouratos 2 (2reb), Toliopoulos 4 (3reb, 1as, 1st), Tsairelis 13 (4/4 2p, 2reb, 2st).
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "It's important to play strong games during this period of time. That's why we came to this tournament. Zadar plays with enthusiasm, with young players and it was a good game for us. On our part, we want to work with the internationals that just came here today to be with us. We used Lojeski today and Mantzaris, Matt came in earlier than Vangelis and that's why he played more. Our goal is to continue working, smoothly incorporate the internationals with the team, and give emphasis to tactics, in both defense and offense. When new players come in, it takes even harder work on everyone's part and that's what we are going to do. We play in a great gym, the tournament is awesome, of very high level and I would like to congratulate everyone on the organization. Kudos to all. I'm very satisfied that we play this tournament. The most important thing is that we are going to practice differently. Printezis, Spanoulis and Hackett need more rest because they played more in the Eurobasket. We'll see how their schedule goes and we'll decide if they are going to play and for how long in this tournament. We'll see we don't know yet. Miloutinov did not play too much for the Eurobasket, he's also younger, so he will be playing the tournament. Bayern Munich is a Euroleague level team. We need to be better tomorrow".