Always first…
Olympiacos beat Apollon 77-72 on the road for the 25th day of the Basket League SKRATS and remains at the top seed of the ranking. Vassilis Spanoulis was the MVP.
The ‘reds’ were impressive in the first half when the lead was 21 points. In the second half, the Piraeus players weren’t as good and the hosts got to close in, but the team of Giannis Sfairopoulos eventually sealed victory.
THE DEFENSE: ‘Thrylos’ defense was excellent in the first half. The ‘reds’ stopped the hosts from scoring more than 27 points playing excellent defense for most part of the first half. In the third quarter, however, the players of Giannis Sfairopoulos did not play defense according to the coach’s plan and received 28 points allowing Apollon to get back to the game.
THE OFFENSE: The offense worked well, especially in the second quarter, which was the best for Olympiacos, In the second quarter, Olympiacos scored 29 points, with Darius Johnson-Odom scoring 13 in that period.
THE MVP: Vassilis Spanoulis. For yet another game, the ‘Thrylos’ captain was excellent, finishing with 15 points and 9 assists.
KEEPS, FORGETS: Keeps the first half and forgets the second one. Olympiacos dominated the first half, however, in the second one, the ‘reds’ allowed the hosts to believe.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 13-19, 27-48, 55-64, 72-77
Apollon Patrae (Mexas): Argyropoulos 14 (2), Dillard 16 (3), Kouzeloglou, Meier 15 (3), Woods 10, Palbland 5 (1), Jawarra, Lampropoulos 2, Saddler 10 (2).
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Spanoulis 15 (9as), Milutinov 1 (2reb), Agravanis 9 (3), Mantzaris 12 (1), Papanikolaou 5 (1 3p, 8reb), Johnson-Odom 13 (3), Hunter 9 (6reb), Papapetrou 3, Starwberry 4 (2as), Warrick 3, Hackett 3 (1 3p, 2reb).
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: «Before I talk about the game, I would like to congratulate Nikos Argyropoulos on his career with Greek basketball. I have been happy to work with him in Olympiacos and besides being a very good athlete, he’s an excellent person as well and I wish him all the best. In regard to the game, we knew what we were going to deal with. We knew that Apollon plays very well, especially at home. We imposed our game in the first half, we played good defense, scored many easy baskets, we took good shots and if you take a look at our numbers, we had above 80% with 2p. and above 50% at threes. We knew that Apollon was going to react in the second half, we had talked about entering the game as focused as possible and determined not to allow them a come-back, but unfortunately, this was not possible. We won a tough game, but we keep the victory. We have tried very hard the whole season to win the absolute home court advantage, we have one more game in our home court for the Greek League which we have to win to earn that. We need to examine what happened in the second half and not allow it to happen again. We are now focusing on the game against CSKA Moscow, this is what we have to focus on, we need to rest and prepare for this game.
Asked about the many missed free throws, the Greek coach said that «there is nothing to explain, sometimes you shoot your free throws well, sometimes not. The bad percentage with our free throws has to do with the lack of concentration. We don’t have a problem with free throws in general, but tonight there was a problem and it’s something that should not happen again».
Asked on whether there is a chance to experience the same atmosphere like the one in Patrae during a big derby, the ‘Thrylos’ coach answered: «I wish we can experience that, the atmosphere tonight was great and this is how it should be at every gym. Fans that love basketball, love their team and supports it in sporting spirit».
DJ STRAWBERRY: «We need to congratulate Apollon for playing a tough game. They played with more confidence in the second half, they engaged the fans as well and played better basketball. They played harder in the second half, they did not stop fighting and returned to the game. We did not play good defense, it was obvious. We did not play as we did in the first half and that cost us».