Alone and undefeated at the top
Olympiacos beat AEK 78-67 and after eight days for the Stoiximan.gr Βasket League is alone and undefeated at the top.
Olympiacos made a great start in the game. Printezis and Lojeski seemed unstoppable with the difference going fast at ten (26-16) in the first quarter. In the second one, the outlook was the same. Lojeski continued scoring, Birch, Papapetrou and Papanikolaou offered solutions to make the score 43-34 at half-time. In the third quarter however, the Greek Champions were exquisite. With a partial 22-12, they sent the difference close to 20 (65-46). In the last quarter, the 'reds' maintained the margin above 15 points for the most part with AEK simply closing in for the final 78-67 following three consecutive threes made.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 26-16, 43-34, 65-46, 78-67.
ΟLYMPIACOS (Sfairopoulos): Birch 12 (10 reb.), Spanoulis 10 (2 3p., 9 as.), Printezis 12 (1), Papanikolaou 8(1), Mantzaris, Green 7(1), Young 2, Papapetrou 9(1), Milutinov, Hackett 1, Lojeski 17 (3), Αthinaiou
ΑΕΚ (Zdovc): Ukic 14 (2), Vasileiadis 11 (3), Larentzakis, Falker 2, Williams 2, Sakota 14 (1), Milosevic 5 (1), Dixon 10 (1), Ιvanovic, Mavroeidis 9, Skoulidas
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "It's an important victory because we played a team that had aspirations to break into the top ranking two and has been undefeated in the Greek League. We did a good job and won without problems. Congratulations to my players for reacting well following the defeat to Maccabi. I would like to thank the fans for coming here tonight and helping us and wish all well to Kostas Vasileiadis with his injury".
Asked about how satisfied he is from the performance of his players, the Greek coach said that "when the team wins, I only wish that you write about the players and how they play to win. When the team loses, I want you to all write that it was my fault".
DANIEL HACKETT: "It's a good victory against a strong team like AEK. We were in need of it following the defeat in the complicated game against Maccabi and we are no focusing ahead".
ERIC GREEN: "It was a reaction. We had the answers. We forgot what happened against Maccabi. We played an excellent game against AEK. We weren't that good in the last four minutes, but we played a good game as a total. This is a good team, with good players. We won, we are back on track. I have my role in the team. Things happen, I leave everything behind. I'm here to help the team. I have learned, I'm getting more mature".
JURI ZDOVC: "Congratulations to Olympiacos for the victory. They were the favorite to win it and after they lost to Maccabi, we had been expecting them to play hard, but also that they would be under some kind of pressure. These games showcase your weaknesses, because Olympiacos is a top level team. However, I think that should we had believed in it more and played harder, we could have even won. But we weren't at the required level, we played a bad game and despite that, for the most part we were only trailing by 6 or 7. We had talked with our players, but it's another thing to talk and another thing to face the reality. We have had many players who only think about the offense and not the defense. We have been doing quite well up to now but we need to believe, continue working and wait for the next opportunity".
Asked about what it is that AEK lacks to be more competitive on the road, he said: "It's not easy to pinpoint that. We are not a very clever team, we play hastily against such teams and each one of your mistakes gets punished. We also have a rebounding problem, Olympiacos got 15 offensive boards tonight and this can kill you. Apart from that, Olympiacos has two players like Spanoulis and Printezis. We had to correct our weaknesses, or at least hide them".
DIMITRIS MAVROEIDIS: "We know what kind of team Olympiacos is and their quality. We played a terrible game, we made too many mistakes. Olympiacos got wide ahead in the third quarter. We played terribly, especially in offense. We made very bad choices. We should have been there for 40 minutes. However, this not easy for us. We are still not at that level, we need a lot of work. It was a good test to check where we stand".