An important victory in Milan

Olympiacos beat Armani Jeans Milano 71-66 on the road for the third day of the Euroleague Regular Season and holds a 2-1 record. Young, Spanoulis and Printezis were the leaders of the team. Limoges is our next opponent.

The game did not start well for Olympiacos, especially in defense where the Italians scored continued threes. Thus, Armani Jeans Milano succeeded in leading 23-20 at the end of the first quarter. However, the defense of the Greek Champions significantly improved in the second quarter. Olympiacos had complete control during the first five minutes of the second quarter and with a partial 3-14 the team of Giannis Sfairopoulso made the score 27-34. The home team run a partial 10-3 and tied the game 37-37 and half time ended 37-39 with a bucket by Othello Hunter.

At the beginning of the third quarter, Olympiacos once again took a six points lead but Armani continued shooting on target behind the 6.75 arc and thus remained in the game. Two consecutive threes gave the Italians a +2 game (54-52), they then led by five, but Spanoulis and Printezis took things into their hands and made the score 60-62 with four minutes to go. Printezis and Spanoulis guided Olympiacos to an important 71-66 victory.

The quarters: 23-20, 37-39, 54-52, 66-71
Armani Jeans Milano (Repesa) : McLean 2, Lafayette 5 (1), Gentile 24 (2), Cerela, Macvan 9 (1), Jenkins 8 (2), Hummel 3 (1), Barac 1, Lawal 3, Simon 11 (2).
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Young 18 (4reb, 1st), Hunter 4 (5reb), Papapetrou, Spanoulis 14 (3 3p, 2reb, 4as), Strawberry, Printezis 16 (1 3p, 6reb), Agravanis 4 (1 3p, 4reb), Mantzaris, Hackett 9 (5reb, 1st, 1as), Lojeski 6 (3reb, 3as).

GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS : "It is a very important victory for us, winning on the road for a Euroleague game is always important. We wanted this victory for psychological reasons. I think we prepared the game well; we worked well and played well. We played the game according to our standards that is a tight defense. When you play a Euroleague game on the road and you stop your opponent from scoring more than 66 points, you take a great advantage at winning. We are a new team compared to last season and the more we work together the better we become. I want to say that during pre-season we weren't able to work together due to the Eurobasket".

PATRIC YOUNG: "The most important thing is that we won despite difficulties. It was hard to make it in a court with 12,000 spectators, but we played s a team and got an important victory. Our goal is to win every game and reach a higher level. It's early to talk about anything else. We are still far from where we want to be, but we work hard and improve game by game. If we stay together, everything will be OK. We don't know when we are going to be 100% ready, but we'll get there sooner or later. When you prepare well, then everything is well on the floor. It doesn't matter who the opponent is for me. When I have a good position near the post, there is no problem. I still have a lot to learn, especially defense wise".