Olympiacos to the Greek League finals
Olympiacos edged Aris 79-65, 'sweeping' the semi finals and has advanced to the STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League Finals. Ioannis Papapetrou was the top scorer for the Greek Champions.
The game began with great shooting percentages for the hosts. Mantzaris continued from where he had stopped in Istanbul and the 22-13 of the first quarter is absolutely indicative of the game outlook. Green and Papanikolaou took over in the second quarter, offering offensive boost and half time ended with the Piraeus team at +14 (39-25).
The tempo opened up greatly in the third quarter. Olympiacos was unstoppable and the 65-49 score at 30' was only natural. Giannis Sfairopoulos tried different things and line ups in the last quarter, Papapetrou was enjoyable to watch and game ended with Olympiacos winning 79-65 and winning the series 3-0.
The 'reds' are once again in the STOIXIMAN.GR BasketLeague play-offs finals and are now getting ready for the first game of the series on Sunday (28/05) at 20:00 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
THE POINTS
The quarters: 22-13, 39-25, 65-49, 79-65.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Milutinov 2 (6 reb), Printezis 13 (1 3p), Papanikolaou 9 (7reb), Mantzaris 14 (4 3p), Spanoulis 10 (1 3p, 6as), Green 6, Birch 2, Young 3 (8reb), Τoliopoulos, Papapetrou 18 (5reb), Waters, Αgravanis 2.
Aris (Priftis): Flionis 2, Cummings 21 (3 3p), Jankovic 3, Κavvadas 6, Dragisevic 3 (1), Scott 2, Xanthopoulos 9 (3), Tsairelis 8 (1 3p), Christidis 4, Symtsak 2, Mourtos 5 (1).
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: «We played a good game. We were in control through our defense, especially in the first half. We made a very good start in the second half, the margin was up to 22 points and somewhere there our defense relaxed. We were controlling the game mainly through our offense. We have had some not good periods in the game, but the outcome is positive. We are focusing on the finals. It was good we got to use all our players and that young players like Papapetrou, Young and Agravanis stepped up. We protected Waters who had a minor injury problem. We are not looking at the series against Panathinaikos in depth. We are only focusing on the first game. I wish to thank the fans that came here tonight and I want our fans to make an impactful presence in the first final and offer their support».
Asked about some complaints he expressed during the game he replied: «I want us to play good defense. We want our game to start from there and that's why I reprimanded our players about it».
Finally, Giannis Sfairopoulos talked about Matt Lojeski «It's very improbable that he will be making the finals».
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: «We have been upset about the lost final, but we have to leave that behind. Life goes on; a good game is over. We have focused on the last and most important goal, the championship. We need to maintain home court advantage and win the championship that will give our fans a lot of joy».
DIMITRIS PRIFTIS: «I want to congratulate our opponent, I have talked with the coaches and have expressed our admiration on the way Olympiacos has played in the Euroleague the whole season, as well as in the Final Four. How competitive they had been and how good throughout a very tough Euroleague season. As for our game, it was not easy to manage successive games, especially at the end of the season, especially having not played for days. We now need to manage fatigue and gaps in our roster, but I think that we have a rather good Greek base, which is very important for the team in view of the games against AEK trying to do the best we can, considering all the problems we have to deal with".