A ‘legendary’ victory in Thessaloniki
Olympiacos beat Aris 74-70 on the road for the 24th day of the SKRATS Basket League and remains on the top seed of the League ranking.
With captain Vassilis Spanoulis and his ‘lieutenant’ Giorgos Printezis together with the valuable assistance of Kostas Papanikolaou and Hakim Warrick, ‘Thrylos’ won in Thessaloniki against Aris who lost only its second game this season in their home court and now holds a 23 -1 record.
THE DEFENSE: The defense was impressive for the most part of the game. Especially during the first seven minutes, the defense of the Greek Champions was seminar worthy, just like it was in the last eight minutes of the game.
THE OFFENSE: Spanoulis, Printezis, Papanikolaou and Warrick were the ones to lead the rest in offense. Aris has one of the best defenses in the League, but the players of Giannis Sfairopoulos found the way to score 74 points and thus win an important victory.
THE MVP: Vassilis Spanoulis. The ‘Thrylos’ captain was the absolute leader for yet another game and led his team to the big victory. The captain ended the game with 17 points, 11 assists and 3 rebounds.
KEEPS, FORGETS: Forgets the new mishap suffered. This time, it was Kostas Papanikolaou, who hit Othello Hunter, of course without wanting to. The American center left the game carried by his team mates and did not play again. Keeps the fact that they won in an incredibly tough home court and actually embraced the home court advantage.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 10-12, 28-34, 52-53, 70-74
Aris (Priftis): Xanthopoulos, Pelekanos 3 (1), Chupkovic, White 17 (5), Waters 9 (2), Zaras 8 (2), Huggins 11, Cohen, Mourtos 6 (1), Symtsak, McNeal 16 (1).
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Johnson-Odom, Hunter, Papapetrou 4, Spanoulis 17 (2 3p, 3reb, 11as), Strawberry 4, Milutinov 2, Printezis 13 (9reb), Mantzaris 3 (1), Warrick 10 (8reb), Hackett 9 (1 3p, 3as), Papanikolaou 12 (1 3p, 8reb).
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIRPOULOS: “Congratulations to our players for the victory over a very worthy opponent. We knew it was going to be a tough game, Aris has changed levels of playing. We knew the atmosphere was going to be tough on our players. We played well in the first half, took open shots, but they were off target, as well as some of our lay-ups. Unfortunately we were not shooting well. We maintained control of the game due to our defense. This was the key, when you play good defense, you have more chances at winning. Aris had a good streak in the third quarter, with White, who had not scored at all in the first half. The second half was a derby, Aris was also leading by 5 at some point, but at that point we showed character, played good defense, did not receive points and apart from that, we stole balls, ran and scored easy baskets. It’s important when a team succeeds in building a difference when the game is a close one and that’s why I’m stressing that part. We never stopped believing and at the end we were calm and clear headed and got a much deserved victory. Congratulations to Aris and good luck. I would also like to congratulate my team, they are all heads over heals with the team and they are doing their best to help the players. The team has many finals in a row”.
HAKIM WARRICK: «It was a tough victory, we did a good job in defense during both halves. We don’t have time to think about this game anymore, we have two days to prepare for the game against Khimki».