Looking forward
Olympiacos bested Trikala 79-61 for the 22nd day of the STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League and continues being at the top ranking spot.
The game began with Printezis 'on fire' and scoring seven points in a row. Defense was excellent and the first quarter was 19-11 for the Greek Champions. The tempo opened up in the second quarter, concentration on defense was lackluster and the guests closed in 37-30.
However, the 'reds' stepped up in the third quarter and disappeared in the horizon. With a partial 22-11 streak, Olympiacos got a 59-41 lead and all was over. Giannis Sfairopoulos tried different line ups and with Agravanis bringing in a double - double and Young and Toliopoulos getting minutes, Olympiacos won 79-61.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 19-11, 37-30, 59-41, 79-61
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 3(1), Μilutinov 11, Printezis 10(1), Papanikolaou 8(2), Mantzaris 11(1), Birch 2, Young 2, Τoliopoulos, Papapetrou 6, Waters 6(1), Agravanis 14(2 3p., 12reb.), Athinaiou 6.
Τrikala (Κastritis): Caffey 2, Eziukwu 2, Barlow 12, Varytimiadis, Τsagkarakis 8 (2), Manolopoulos 11 (1), Lypovyy 13 (1), Krathanasis, Poulianitis 5 (1), Kalles 3, Haughton 1.
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: "It was a good game against a fighting opponent. We made a rather good start; we only received 11 points in the first quarter. It's only true that the tempo was down in the second quarter. Nevertheless, the general outlook was quite good following a bad defeat. We are moving towards the end. We still have another four games for the Greek League; we want to isolate them, and focus at each one separately, so as to gain home court advantage. We are also moving towards the end of the Euroleague Regular Season, we still have four games to go and we also focus at one at a time aiming for the highest ranking possible and the home court advantage as well. We have a tough week ahead of us; we have two back to back games. We are firs going to prepare the game against Red Star since it's going to be a tough battle".
DIMITRIS AGRAVANIS: "It was a game when we needed to react following the loss to Galata. We all fought hard on both ends of the floor to bring out energy and good plays. The intensity of our effort is reflected in the number of rebounds we got. The game against Trikala is over. A tough week is ahead of us with tough games to play. We are focusing on the game against Red Star and we are going to prepare the best we can for a very tough game".