A dominant Olympiacos
Olympiacos was amazing against AEK for the first semifinal of the Bakset League SKRATS play-offs (93-58) and now leads the series 1-0. The second semifinal will be played once again at the Peace and Friendship Stadium on Friday (May 6) at 19:00 CET.
THE DEFENSE: Olympiacos' defense was once again impressive. The 'reds' proved why they have one among the Europe's best defensive games stopping AEK at scoring just 58 points. It's worth noting that the guests only got to score ten in the last quarter.
THE OFFENSE: 'Thrylos' keeps going with the foot on the gas pedal into the semis as well, all the more scoring 93 points. Four Piraeus players scored two digits.
THE ΜVP: Vassilis Spanoulis. The 'Thrylos' captain had 15 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists in the 22 minutes he got to be on the floor. There were times when 2 or 3 AEK players were on to him but to no avail.
KEEPS, FORGETS: Keeps 1-0 and forgets… 1-0. 'Thrylos' took the lead in the series against AEK, but they cannot think about it even for a minute since in less than 48 hours they have to play AEK again and this is going to be a totally different game.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 21-14, 52-30, 70-48, 93-58
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Spanoulis 15 (2), Milutinov, Αgravanis, Mantzaris 8 (2), Papanikolaou 9 (1), Hunter 12, Papapetrou 9, Strawberry 10 (1), Printezis 7, Warrick 10, Hackett 6, Lojeski 7 (1).
ΑΕΚ (Zdovc): Hairston, Mavrokefalidis 13, Brown 3, Κatsivelis, Mavroeidis 15, Sakota 3, Milosevic 6, Green 8 (2), Carter 2, Kalampokis 7 (1), Eric 1.
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: «We only took 1-0 lead tonight and nothing more. We played our game and imposed our rhythm. We were very good on both ends of the floor. We had tremendous energy and will to fight for every ball and this makes me happy. We are not looking at the difference, we only have 1-0 in the series and this is it. This is not who AEK is. They will definitely want to react in the next game and they are going to be better».
OTHELLO HUNTER: We played excellent in both ends of the floor. We executed our plan on the floor and played an amazing game. We worked very well as a team. This is not the real AEK. They will be stronger in the next game and we are going to need to be even better prepared for the second semi final».
YURI ZDOVC: «Congratulations to coach Sfairopoulos and the Olympiacos players. They played stronger, smarter, faster and they were better at everything. I was afraid of this outcome, because some of our players did not believe in victory and seemed to be thinking about ARIS since the moment we arrived at the Peace and Friendship Stadium. This is a mistake. We were not a team, we looked like a bunch of twelve players gathered from the street yesterday. We have two days to see what we can do to clear this shameful mess».
DIMITRIS KATSIVELIS: «Congratulations to Olympiacos, who played a very good game. They were better than us in every aspect of the game and won fairly. We need to see the whole game, examine our mistakes and be more ready come Friday»