Olympiacos wins in Barcelona!
Olympiacos bested Barcelona on the road 69-67 for the 17th day of the Euroleague and now has a 12 -5 record.
Olympiacos made a bad start in the game, the hosts were leading 13-6, but then, with a partial 2-7, the 'reds' came back to make the score 15-13 and the first quarter to end 20-17 for the hosts.
Ante Tomic did a lot of damage in the second quarter, but Olympiacos always had the answers and half time was 33-29 for Barca. In the third quarter, Waters and the leading performance of Printezis kept the 'reds' close to the score. Each time Barcelona was trying to open up the margin, Lojeski was there, Papanikolaou, Papapetrou and Milutinv were doing an incredible job on both ends of the floor and Olympiacos remained close to the score.
Barcelona was leading 64-58 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but Mantzaris was there. He scored a three that made the score 64-61 and then the game was point for point. Coponen tied the game 67-67 before Mantzaris with 2/2 free throws 7'' before the end wrote 67-69. In the last play of the game, Olympiacos showed why they have the best defense in Europe, did not allow Barcelona to even take a shot and got a great victory.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 20-17, 33-29, 54-56, 67-69
Barcelona (Bartzokas): Rice 15 (1), Doelman 5 (1), Dorsey 7, Claver 4, Navarro 3 (1), Vezenkov 2, Oleson, Coponen 16 (4), Renfroe 3, Τomic 12.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 8 (2), Birch 2, Young 1, Papapetrou 2, Waters 8, Μilutinov 6, Printezis 16 (1 3p., 9 reb.), Papanikolaou 8 (2 3p., 8 reb.), Μantzaris 6 (1), Lojeski 11 (1), Αthinaiou 1.
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "We won an important game. It's always difficult to play in this court against Barcelona. They are a great team and this victory is extremely important. I believe we deserved to win, the game was a derby throughout, but we kept them low at scoring. We kept them at 67 points, when they usually score an average of 79. When you keep such a good offensive team 12 points below their average, especially at their home, you have a chance at winning and this is what happened. Barcelona also had a chance at winning, but we remained focused at the end and made the right choices in most critical decisions and details. Congratulations to all the players that fought and stayed true to the plan, we saw most of what we had decided before the game materialize on the floor. We continue humbly and we continue working hard. Euroleague has still a long way to go, so we need to continue this way. I would like to congratulate Barcelona and say a huge thanks to the fans, we were listening to them from where they were seated, they helped the players a lot to fight. Only media cares about how many victories one team has over another. We want to win as many games as possible. Olympiacos is a great European team that wants to win every game. This cannot be always the case, players are only human, but we do try hard".
GIORGOS PRINTEZIS: "It's important that we played as a team and we endured. We played in a tough court, it's difficult to win here. Chemistry and endurance are our main characteristics. We deserved the victory. We played good defense, although we received some easy baskets. We came back, we are doing well in that part and through defense we found offensive rhythm as well. You know better all things tradition. Each game is different, each season, each quarter. We came here to win. We want to win every game. We came here to fight and got an important road victory. It doesn't mean anything much though. We'll celebrate tonight. We still have way to go, I wish we stay healthy and keep playing as a team to finish as high as possible. Keeping a clear head and experience helped as well. We have many players that know how to deal with this part. We are among the most experienced teams in the competition in regard to games decided at the end".
On the home court advantage, the 31 year old forward said that "no loss is easy. We have a lot of time and a long way to go. Nothing is done and over with. It's important that persevere and play well. Let's enjoy tonight's victory and we'll see what comes next from tomorrow on".
On the absence of Vassilis Spanoulis: "I know he's very happy. Absences like that of Vassilis' may not show much in a couple of games, but have a huge impact down the line. We want him by our side really quickly".
On the fans presence in Barcelona: «It's our pleasure to have given them joy».
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: "It was a very tough game. One rebound, one mistake decided the result, however, we had the chance to finish the game earlier, when we were leading by 6. We made offensive fouls, bad decisions and Olympiacos is a very experienced team. They made big shots, one by Mantzaris was among the very important ones. I think we tried very hard in our defense but we were shooting twos very poorly and when you score only 67 points in Palau it's very difficult to win. We needed something more and we did not have it and we are now focusing on the next game. I can say that each game is a different story and each team plays a different style of game which you need to adjust to. But you have to play your own style. Right now, I can say that we are not a very tough team for this level. We needed to win tonight and finish the game earlier, but we made bad decisions during the game. We've been making mistakes that's why we are losing games like this one. We have to prepare for the next game and fight to the end. We have almost a whole round to play in the competition and we are not going to quit. We need to remain consistent from game to game and be tougher, we need to learn from this game".