Tried hard but failed
Olympiacos fought hard against CSKA Moscow, looked the Russian team in the eye, but was defeated 92-85 and finished the first phase of the TOP16 with 3-4 record.
The ‘reds’ having four players scoring two digits looked CSKA Moscow in the eye, but they ‘broke’ at the end getting defeated with a score of 92-85. The Greek Champions playing excellent basketball at moments succeeded in even leading at some point, but they were unable to follow through.
THE DEFENSE: CSKA has the best offense of the Euroleague TOP16. Olympiacos tried hard, but failed to stop them from reaching their averages.
THE OFFENSE: It worked great for most part of the game. Four team players had two digit scoring. Especially in the half, the ‘reds’ were impressive in the offense scoring 52 points during that time.
THE MVP: All those playing fought with everything they had. Excellent game by Hunter, Hackett, Spanoulis and Printezis.
KEEPS, FORGETS: Keeps the fact that should a couple of plays had gone another way, then the Moscow game could be a winner. Also keeps the final difference of -7 because it’s something that can be surpassed at the Peace and Friendship Stadium. Forgets the bad couple of minutes that followed the three by Strawberry which gave ‘Olympiacos’. Should the team been able to maintain the lead at that time, then maybe the game could have gone differently.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 18-15, 41-33, 66-61, 92-85
CSKA Moscow (Itoudis): De Colo 19 (1), Kulagin, Teodosic 21 (3), Fritzon 3 (1), Nichols, Jackson 3, Freeland 8, Vorontsevich 1, Higgins 12 (2), Khryapa 4, Κurbanov 11, Hines 10.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Johnson-Odom, Hunter 15, Papapetrou, Spanoulis 15 (1), Strawberry 9 (1), Milutinov, Printezis 19 (1), Μantzaris, Hackett 17 (3), Lojeski 10 (2).
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: «I would like to congratulate CSKA Moscow for the victory. We controlled the rhythm during a high level game between the two teams. We fought very hard and I think that the result does not do us justice. I wish CSKA good luck. I would like to say that Olympiacos has a lot of complaints in regard to the officiation and not just for tonight’s game. I respect the Euroleague and the refs and that’s why I haven’t talked about it before. Tonight, the officiation used different criteria. There is a talk lately about the way Olympiacos is defending and we witnessed the result of that talk tonight. I believe that the Olympiacos’ history deserves more respect from the refs. And to analyze that , if you take a look at the stats, the two teams scored the same 2-pointers, Olympiacos had more threes made and the difference came from the free throws. At the end of the third quarter, the free throws were 25 for CSKA and 8 for Olympiacos. At the end, when we scored six free throws, the game was practically decided. I would still want to congratulate CSKA and wish them good luck”.
Asked about some mistakes in the offense, the Greek coach answered that "we definitely made some mistakes in the offense but to score 85 points against CSKA in that gym shows that we did a good overall offensive job”.
Finally, when a question was put to the Greek coach in regard to the officiation of the game, the CSKA people did not allow (!!!) for it to go through.
MILAN TOMIC: «What happened tonight is a shame, volleyball is played without contact. Basketball is played with contact. Not all contacts get called for, basketball is played with contact, so CSKA Moscow got to play its defense? Whenever we were getting closer, they were sending them to the free throw line. It’s a shame to finish the first TOP16 phase that way. We are now focusing on the three Greek League games that are ahead. WE may qualify, if we are allowed to. I think it’s not the right moment to talk about transfers”.
DANIEL HACKETT: «I think we played well. It’s not easy to play here. We had the chance to win, but we did not make it. It was a game decided by details. Whenever we were getting close, they were shooting free throws. It’s difficult to play against them, they are a good team, but they were shooting free throws all the time. I don’t want to talk about the refs. CSKA Moscow is a team that scores 90 points in each game, but we can also do that. We need to look ahead up to the battle against Barcelona. There are battles each week. This is what we will continue to be doing to the end, keep fighting”.
GIORGOS PRINTEZIS: «It was an important game for us. We gave all we had, we fought hard, but we did not get the result we had wanted to. We have one more round to play to achieve qualification. Before the game against Barcelona, we need to focus on the three games for the Greek League and continue to have a game at a time approach”.
*During the game, both Matt Lojeski and Othello Hunter, had injections in order to be able to play, due to stomach problems.