Scoring 100 points and stepping up for the playoffs

Olympiacos completed the regular season of the STOIXIMAN.GR Basket League with a victory. The 'reds' bested Prometheus at the SEF 104-69 and are now getting ready for the playoffs having to play Kymi for the first round on a home court advantage.

Taking advantage of the poor defense as well the terrible percentages of our team (5/8 free throws, 1/8 twos, 5/13 threes in the first quarter, and three of the latter were scored by Janis Strelnieks!), Prometheus closed the quarter leading 28-22.

In the beginning of the second quarter, the guests took the difference to +8 (26-34, at 13') and continued controlling the tempo up to 15' (33-40). In about only 1 minute, Olympiacos run a partial 8-0, got to lead by one (41-40), however, the gaps in its defense wouldn't allow the 'reds' to go to the locker rooms with a wider margin (48-47).

Nevertheless, the Sfairopoulos' players began the second half determined to deal with the challenge of winning and did just that. They put pressure on the defense, opened fire with Kyle Wiltjer and with a partial 29-3 sent the difference to +27 (77-50, at 29').

This allowed the coach to use - much earlier before the 3rd quarter ended - Vassilis Toliopoulos, Nikos Arsenopoulos and Andreas Tsoumanis. The Olympiacos youth exhibited skills and the margin got even wider (28p., 104-66 at 39'). All the more, the 17 year old Andreas Tsoumanis, scored his first ever bucket for the professional league at 32'. More specifically, he got to score 4 in a row at that point and eventually a total of 7points.

Before the beginning of the game, our team captain, Vassilis Spanoulis, was presented with an award by HEBA for being the top scorer in the history of the Basket League.

"It's a good thing to watch young kids play. Greece has basketball in its DNA. I wish new kids emerge that can play for the National Team and that Greek Basketball continues its successful course", the captain commented following the end of the game in the presence of the "youngsters" and continued talking about the playoffs. "The thing is that we hope to be in good shape, we hope that the injured players come back and we are ready to play for the title in the playoffs".
On the anniversary of six years since winning the Euroleague in Istanbul, he said: "These are great memories. We say that sports have many sad moments and some great joys. That's what happened with us. We have lived through exceptional moments and this team has been loved by the fans. We have built a great team on a small budget that has won championships and Euroleague titles. We have many Greek players and the foreigners that come in, come to help and build on their careers. This is not the norm. We took the opposite path".

The quarters: 22-28, 48-47, 77-52, 104-69

Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): ΜcLean 10 , Spanoulis 10 (1 3p., 10 assists), Strelnieks 9 (3), Roberts 5 (1), Wiltjer 23 (6), Brown 8 (2), Τoliopoulos 3 (1), Papanikolaou 7 (7 reb.), Mantzaris 2, Τsoumanis 7 (1), Αrsenopoulos 3 (1), Bogris 17 (13 reb.).

Prometheus (Giatras): Lypovyy 3(1), Faye 1, Ellis 6, Manztoukas 12 (2), Prather 18 (2), Τountziarakis 5, Skoufis 2, Gkikas 3 (1), Geromichalos 7, Dimakos 6, Karaiskos 2, Sotiriou 4.

«Young players need to keep working hard»

Giannis Sfairopoulos commented: "It was an open game, an offensive game by both teams. We did not make a good beginning with our defense, while on offense we were moving the ball correctly; we got to shoot open shots. At some point we overdid it shooting from the perimeter. After a certain point, our offense was running smoothly, we closed the first half 48-47, but we weren't half as good with our defense. We began the second half with better concentration. Then the young kids from both teams got to play, those of Prometheus got in a little earlier and we had an open game that proved Greek basketball to have a lot of young athletes available. This is the most important take from today's game. We need to pay them the attention they need and help them play at a high level. About our young players, what I need to say is that they need to keep working. Be ready at any moment to do what they have to do, always starting from defense. The most important thing is that they have the right mentality, and work hard to be able to move forward".