No problems against Lavrio
A victorious night for Olympiacos for the domestic league. The 'reds' beat Lavrio 84-68 on the road, for the 22nd day of the STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League.
Both Giorgos Printezis and Kim Tillie were out of the rotation due to injuries, which forced Giannis Sfairopoulos to try untested lineups early in the game. It's worthy to not that the starting five for our team were Vassilis Spanoulis, Brian Roberts, Kostas Papanikolaou and two centers, Nikola Milutinov and Jamel McLean!
The first five minutes were quite balanced (9-8). However, Olympiacos, relying on good defense and patience when attacking, got to "strike" initially from the perimeter (with Roberts and Spanoulis) and then under the basket with McLean, setting the tempo (13-22, at 10').
The 'reds' took the margin to 15p. (14-29, at 13'), however, Lavrio reacted and running a partial 11-2 closed in at 6p. (25-31, at 16'). But it only went that far… The 'reds' put pressure in the defense once again, dominated rebounding and with Ioannis Papapetrou leading the offense, closed the first half leading by 13p. (30-43).
Olympiacos made an even stronger beginning in the second half and with Milutinov, Papapetrou and McLean scoring with ease, sent the difference to 26p. (43-69, at 31'). From that point on, the 'reds' took care of distancing and got an easy win with an 84-68 score.
Bad luck for Strelnieks
Janis Strelnieks suffered a bad fall at 13', hurt his lower back and was rushed to the hospital to undergo and MRI.
The quarters: 13-22, 30-43, 43-67, 68-84
Lavrio (Serelis): Verginis 3(1), Kouzeloglou, Meier 6, Wiggins 12, Moore 13, Papadimitriou 3, Nixon 8, Perrakis 6, Giannakopoulos 5, Κaklamanakis 4, Mehinti 2, Nwamu 6.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): ΜcLean 11 (8 reb.), Spanoulis 10 (1 3p., 6 as.), Μilutinov 14, Papanikolaou 3 (1 3p., 7 reb.), Roberts 6(2), Brown 12(2), Τoliopoulos 6, Papapetrou 19 (14 reb.), Strelnieks, Μantzaris 3(1), Bogris.
"We played very good defense"
Giannis Sfairopoulos started with congratulating the volleyball women! "First of all I would like to sincerely congratulate the Olympiacos women's volleyball team for winning the European title. It's a great achievement! Congratulations! I also want to wish all the best to the men's volleyball team that will be playing for the Challenge Cup at the SEF tonight".
On the game, he said: "I think it was an open and good game. After the fifth minute, our defense got stronger, we built a difference and with good defense throughout the 2nd and the 3rd quarter, when we expected Lavrio to react, we succeeded in controlling the game. We did not allow our opponent to show how pluralistic they can be, especially when playing at home. They are a very aggressive team organized very well by its coach. Nevertheless, our defense was very good tonight, it disorganized their game and that's why we got a big difference that gave us the victory. I wish all the best for Lavrio and the coach. We move on. We have one more Greek League game to play and then we are focusing on the Euroleague games".