A victory against Valencia with a great performance by the captain!
Giannis Sfairopoulos had asked his players to continue from where they had left off in Madrid and that's exactly what they did. Olympiacos bested Valencia at the SEF 8-70, for the 23rd day of the Euroleague.
Good defense and Vasilis Spanoulis scoring and passing 'ready' buckets mainly to Nikola Milutinov (in the first 7' minutes the captain was on the floor he counted for 7 points and 4 assists), allowed Olympiacos to set the tempo and build a 14 point difference (21-7 at 8').
The Spanish team reacted and led by Fernando San Emeterio closed in to a one bucket game (30-28). The return of Spanoulis and Milutinov offered the 'reds' solutions when attacking (38-32), however, gaps in the defense gave the guests the room to close in to one point (40-39) at the end of the first quarter.
Following the guidelines offered in the first quarter, that is Spanoulis scoring and passing to Milutinov, Olympiacos regained control and got to lead by 12 (60-48 at 29'). When V-Span went to the bench, the team faced a serious problem in the offense and saw Valencia once again closing in to one point (62-61 at 32'). The captain came back on the floor, but the problem was persistent until 37' (68-67).
Finally, good defense combined with the offensive prowess of Spanoulis (he scored 7 points in a row and made the score 75-67 at 39'), were the keys that gave Olympiacos the victory.
The quarters: 22-11, 40-39, 62-55, 80-70.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): McLean 2, Papapetrou 2, Spanoulis 25 (1 3p., 9 as.), Milutinov 15 (6 reb.), Strelnieks, Printezis 8 (1 3p., 8 reb.), Papanikolaou 11 (1 3p., 10 reb.), Roberts 4, Τhompson 2.
Valencia (Vidorreta): Thomas 11, Garcia 5 (1), Abalde 7, Dubljevic 4, San Emeterio 19 (3), Pleiss, Sastre 2, Green 13, Doornekamp 7 (1).
«An important victory on every aspect»
Giannis Sfairopoulos stated: «It's an important victory for both ranking and psychological purposes following the loss of the Greek Cup. We worked more on the defense where we had problems in the previous game. We played against a good offensive team. Except for the second quarter, when we allowed them to score 28 points, we controlled the game with our good defense. The important thing was that we weren't consistent in our offensive game. The key to the victory was our good defense especially in the last minutes and that we found the best way to attack and score easy points, especially with lay ups and open shots. We move on to the next game. It is only certain that we expect more players to improve their performances and help on both ends of the floor».
Talking about the new player of the team, he said: "I wish to thank the Presidents for the addition. Bobby Brown is a quality player that will help us in the effort we have to make till the end".