A huge road win in Valencia!
Olympiacos traveled to Spain 'decimated', but this did not stop him from getting an important road win! The 'reds' bested Valencia 93-91 and are now solely focusing on the home 'devil-week' against Alba Berlin (14/01, 20.00 CET) and Bayern Munich (17/01, 19.30 CET).
It is reminded that Willie Reed did not participate the delegation (he's past tense for the 'reds' since today) as well as Will Cherry, while Nikola Milutinov was not ready to play due to his injury.
With good defense and Kostas Papanikolaou leading the offense, our team was leading 8-2 at 4'. The hosts replied with San Emeterio, balanced the game (16-16) and got ahead for the first time at 12' (21-19). Olympiacos, despite untested line ups, regained control thanks to the inspirations of Spanoulis and Rochestie and the 'hot' hand of Paul and Vezenkov behind the three point arc (31-39 at 18'). However, the 'taronjas' made good on their dominion of rebounding, took advantage of the bad offensive choices the 'reds' were making and closed in at 3p. (36-39) at the end of the first half.
Valencia opened fire from the perimeter and got ahead 42-41, however, Olympiacos replied in the same way. With two back to back threes by Papanikolaou and Koniaris and a total 9-0 partial, they were at +8 (42-50). San Emeterio continued causing headaches to the 'reds' defense and the Spaniards tied the game 70-70 at 32'. Paul and Vezenkov 'struck' from the 6.75 m. line (70-78 at 33'), however, a scoreless three point gap followed for Olympiacos, that allowed the hosts to take the lead by one (79-78 at 36').
Papanikolaou (despite playing with four fouls) stepped up and together with Printezis and Vezenkov allowed our team to breathe with +5 (82-87 at 39'). The hosts were kept alive scoring from the free throw line (86-89, with 48'' on the clock), but the offensive rebound Printezis grabbed followed two missed free throws by Papanikolaou and the foul he won subsequently (he made both his free throws making the score 86-91 with only 9.9'' to the end), practically tipped the scales for Olympiacos. Marinkovic, again with free throws, closed in 88-91 with 3.6'' on the clock, Spanoulis made another two free throws for the 88-93, while the final 91-93 was written with yet two more free throws by Marinkovic, after everything was decided.
The quarters: 16-16, 36-39, 63-70, 91-93.
Valencia (Ponsarnau): Colom 9 (1), Μarinkovic 20 (2), Ndour 6, Abalde 1, Labeyrie 2, Van Rossom 11 (1), Motum, Dubljevic 2, Vives 6 (2), San Emeterio 23 (2), Sastre 1, Doornekamp 10 (2).
Οlympiacos (Kemzura): Rochestie 7 (1 3p., 4 as.), Baldwin 2 (3 as.), Paul 12 (4), Κoniaris 8 (2), Spanoulis 10 (8 assists, 2 st.), Μilutinov (5 reb., 2 as), Vezenkov 17 (3 3p., 7 reb.), Printezis 18 (1 3p., 7 reb., 3 as.), Papanikolaou 16 (5/7 2p, 1/4 3p, 3/6 1p, 3 reb), Rubit 3.
"We deserved to win"
Olympiacos' coach, Kestutis Kemzura, stated: "It's a great victory. First of all, I would like to congratulate my players, for showing character. They fought hard and with a lot of heart. We deserved to win. I had said before the game, that we needed to win the battle for the rebounds. We did not do that, however, we won the game! In the last possessions close to the end of the game, we got to important rebounds that substantially helped us during those critical moments. I'm talking about the rebounds by Vezenkov and Printezis. We knew we weren't going to have an easy time in this court. All the more, we had our own problems and the hard losses we had suffered. It hadn't been a good time for us, but we showed character, came out and fought. We controlled the game, but we knew that Valencia was going to come back. They struck from the three point and punished all of our turnovers. We made some mistakes, they made some tough threes, but we found ways to attack. Our veteran players, Spanoulis, Papanikolaou, Printezis, made some great plays. Paul made some big threes. I'm happy for the team! I would also like to talk about Koniaris, who came forward tonight and showed character, not only because he made some important threes, but also for his defense. Also, Milutinov came here and played despite his injury and the prognostics that said he wasn’t playing. I would like at this point to talk about the great job our medical team has done. His presence was important, even though he didn't get to score. All the players contributed and we fought as a team. Our 23 assists show the quality and the way we want to be playing. We made some very, very important steps in the first game of the second round. We began with a win and we are looking forward to what comes next".
Asked about whether the team only participating the Euroleague has had a positive or negative effect, he replied: "There are always two sides in each story. On one hand, you have more time to prepare the game. You are fresher and have more energy. On the other, you lose rhythm and that is especially apparent with players that don't get so many minutes. It's hard for them. We try to solve this problem with some scrimmage games. It helps a little. I can't say that the situation is totally good or bad. It's somewhere in between. Sometimes it works for us, sometimes not".