Monday Night Against Covid-19: Olympiacos - Mega Basket 78-75
Olympiacos bested Mega Basket Soccerbet 78-75, in the second friendly game of the Monday Night Against Covid-19 initiative.
The ‘reds’ played without Vassilis Spanoulis and Shaquielle McKissic, while Kostas Papanikolaou is still inactive due to injury.
The guests imposed their tempo from the start and got to lead 11-2 at 5’. The Bartzokas’ players put pressure in the defense, made good offensive choices and closed in 15-16. However, the Serbs, with Simonovic and Petrusev in leading roles, regained the lead and closed the first quarter at +8 (37-45).
The Serbian team maintained the lead consistently throughout the 3rd quarter (45-55 at 24’ and 58-63 at 30’), however, with good defense and Sasha Vezenkov leading the offense, the ‘reds’ turned the tables (69-66 at 32’) and got the win.
The quarters: 15-16, 37-45, 58-63, 78-75.
"We have to become tougher"
Our team’s coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, stated: “These Monday games are very important due to their charity cause. They are also important for us, given that we don’t participate the national league and also because we have the chance to get to know and watch up close many talented players like Simonovic and Petrusev. I would like to wish everyone health and Happy New Year. It’s a difficult season, but now that we are entering the second round it’s going to become obvious who the tough are. We have to become tough. Better yet, we are tough, but we need to be tougher, both physically and mentally, because each game is very important”.
Asked whether the month that follows will be decisive, he replied: “It’s not so… For us, the only important thing is the game against Bayern on Friday. I’m not thinking about anything else. It’s important how we approach the game. Everybody will have to be physically and mentally ready. We are on a good path though. I’m positive that everything is going to be alright, but each time we need to show this on the floor. We have been practicing properly, but the level of the Euroleague is very difficult. Any mistake or any kind of relaxed approach has an immediate cost. Any player is complacent in basketball, stands out on the floor. It’s not like football … Whoever is not ready to play hurts their team and that’s why we all need to be ready”.
The MVP of the game, Sasha Vezemkov, pointed out: “The most important thing in this game is the help towards combating the coronavirus. We are dealing with an invisible enemy. We are very happy that bwin and Olympiacos BC have been helping this way”.
About his performance, he commented: “I tried to help my team just like I’m doing in every game. The truth is we did not play well. Especially in the first half, we received too many points and when we improved a little, we won. However, our outlook should have us think and prompt us to look at ourselves in the mirror, because we have a very difficult January schedule. It’s a month that will be deciding a lot. We have seven very difficult games and no matter how cliché it might seem, we have to look at them one at a time… No one was expecting Bayern to be ranking that high. But they have been playing quality basketball, they have good players and a very good coach. Tonight, we didn’t show the things our coach had wanted to see, neither what we also had wanted to show…”