A … stroll led to the semi finals
Hurricane Olympiacos swept Kolossos Rhodes, getting a 99-48 victory for the quarter finals of the Greek Cup and hence secured a super comfortable qualification to the semi-finals of the competition.
From the first minutes of the game, the Greek Champions showed who the boss was and never looked back. Green, Spanoulis and Hackett set the pace, the rest followed and the Piraeus team got a two digit difference from the beginning.
The players under Giannis Sfairopoulos offered both substance and show time. A superb defensive game kept the Rhodes team at 24 points after 20’ minutes of game (53-24). The game did not change in the third quarter. Thrylos was scoring from every angle, the guests were having a difficult time even to take a shot at points and thus the score was 79-38 at 30’.
In the last quarter, Giannis Sfairopoulos gave minutes, tried different players and rotations, protected and rested some of his players, but the difference was still getting broader with Toliopoulos marking a +45 difference (83-38). The difference was stabilized above 40 points throughout the last quarter and Olympiacos got an easy win that sends the team to the Greek Cup semi-finals
The quarters: 25-10, 53-24, 79-38, 99-48
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 16 (2), Birch 10 (5reb), Τoliopoulos 5 (1), Papapetrou 5 (1), Spanoulis 8 (2), Agravanis 5 (1), Milutinov 2, Printezis 12, Papanikolaou 9 (1), Mantzaris 14 (2), Hackett 6, Lojeski 7 (2).
Kolossos Rhodes (Lykogiannis): Liapis 2, Reddic 4, Chuku 14 (2), Georgalis, Angelakos 4, Ahonen 5 (1), Berry 9 (1), Vassilopoulos, Papadakis 1, Watson 6, Hall 3.
QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: «I wish a good season to everyone. Congratulations to my players for their focus and readiness levels. We remained focused and played a good game for 40 minutes. We are starting a demanding and tough season and we need to remain focused throughout. We showed our respect for the opponent and ourselves the way we played tonight. It was a good thing that everybody got to play and contribute. This is what we want. The team needs all its players and they need to be ready to give their best, despite of the opponent or the score. We need to put this game behind us and now focus on the league premiere. I wish the best to Kolossos and coach Lykogiannis.».
ARIS LYKOGIANNIS: «Congratulations to Olympiacos for the victory and I wish them all the best in the season, I wish for health that they achieve their goals. There is not much we can say about the game. We began completely wrong, but at the same time wanting to keep energy for the league premiere. When you have to travel, only two days before the beginning of the season and a game against this certain opponent, you need to think to make it as painless as possible. We were not thinking clearly from the first quarter and we played a very bad game. However, we were taught a good lesson and this will help, especially our foreign players, to realize that friendly games have nothing to do with official games and that they have joined the most tactical League in Europe».