A road victory and Tsoumanis premiering!
Olympiacos bested GSL Faros with a 95-83 score on the road, for the 25th day of the STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League. Also, 17 year old Andreas Tsoumanis got to play his first game for the professional League!
The hosts made a strong start in the game and got a 7 point lead (11-4) at 5'. Olympiacos, nevertheless, improved on its defense, movedthe ball better and with Vassilis Spanoulis and Kostas Papanikolaou spearheading the offense run a 10-0 partial and turned the game around (11-14 at 9'). Kyle Wiltjer, Bobby Brown and Giorgos Bogris took over scoring responsibilities sending the margin to 11p. (30-41, at 18'). However, the Larissa team took advantage of its good perimeter percentages and closed in at 6p. (38-44) at the end of the first half.
The tempo got slower in the second half, which allowed the Larissa team to run a partial 14-5 and gain the lead (52-51). Papanikolaou, Spanoulis and Brown saw that Olympiacos immediately regained it (52-61), but the hosts refused to throw the towel in and closed in at 5p. (63-68, at 30'). But that was as far as they got to go… The 'reds' put pressure in their defense, run the fast break and with a partial 17-4 sent the difference to +18 (85-67, at 35'), allowing for the last five minutes of the game to be a mere procedure.
The quarters: 14-17, 38-44, 63-68, 83-95
GSL Faros (Skourtopoulos): Papamakarios 6(2), Μaragkos 12(2), Μouratos 7, Schaftenaar 5(1), Papantoniou 15(1), Bader 10(2), Diamantakos 2, Vavatsikos, Burtt 22(2), Fenner 2, Keely 2.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): ΜcLean 5, Spanoulis 13(3), Papanikolaou 10 (6 reb.), Μantzaris 9(2), Wiltjer 13(3), Brown 19(4), Toliopoulos, Strelnieks 6(2), Τsoumanis,
Αrsenopoulos, Roberts 12(1), Bogris 8
"We are on a good path in regard to our offense"
Giannis Sfairopoulos commented: "Congratulations to both teams. It was an open game, without a very strong presence of defense. We had a steady lead after the first minutes of the first quarter, following Larissa's good beginning. However, we never succeeded in getting a wider margin. Not only that, but Larissa got the lead in the second half. We played better defense in the 4th quarter, we contained our opponents and with a consistent offensive game succeeded in winning the game. It's obvious that the big men missing from our roster, 'weaken' our defense, while our offense is better due to the many guards that play and move the ball. We have had five players scoring two digits for the second game in a row, we have been shooting well from the perimeter. I think that we are in a good path so as to function well as a team in the offense. I hope that when the injured players get back we play even better".
He continued talking about the injuries… "As you saw today, Papanikolaou only played the '4' position, not his natural one. That was due to the lack of bodies in this position. We have to manage all these situations within the game and that's not easy. It is only certain that this anomaly weakens the defensive collaborations, because some players play different positions than their usual ones. There is nothing wrong with Papapetrou, he did not play mainly to rest. He got very tired during the last previous games, due to the absence of other players. I believe that when Papapetrou, Printezis and Milutinov come back, we are going to have the time work to be even better and start the playoffs with all of our roster. Congrats to Larissa, to coach Skourtopoulos and the players for having made a huge effort so as the team keeps the category".
Bobby Brown commented: "It's always hard when you play on the road. We found rhythm, played as a team and won".