Super Cup: Olympiacos wins it again!
Just like last year, Olympiacos won in Rhodes the first trophy of the season! Our team ‘crushed’ Panathinaikos 75-51 and celebrated winning the cup!
It’s note worthy that captain Kostas Papanikolaou was not the first one to lift the Cup since he called the Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas to receive the trophy in his place.
Relying on a superb defensive game – that only allowed the ‘greens’ to score a mere 4 points in the first quarter – and with Nikola Milutinov and Kostas Papanikolaou leveraging the offence, the ‘red & whites’ got to lead by 12 (16-4) at 10’. And that was just the beginning … Bartzokas’ players continued delivering a defense seminar and thanks to their good long range percentages, they sent the difference to sky-high levels (+28, 32-3) at 17’. Panathinaikos got to score after about 13 minutes (32-7), but, Giannoulis Larentzakis and Shaquielle McKissic saw to maintain the chaotic distance between the two teams (37-11, at 20’).
In the second half the ‘greens’ got to react, they pressed in the back court, took advantage of Olympiacos’ turnovers and closed in to 21p. (43-22). But that was as far as they went… Isaiah Canaan and Alec Peters ‘unblocked’ our team’s offense (56-34 at 30’), while in the 4th quarter the baton was passed to the unstoppable Giannoulis Larentzakis, who put a definite end to any hopes the ‘greens’ might have had about turning the game around (64-34) at 34’ and was eventually awarded tournament MVP honors. The final 75-51 came after our team took its foot from the gas pedal…
The quarters: 16-4, 37-11, 56-34, 75-51.
- Nigel Williams-Goss did not play in the final, since he rushed back to Athens on Saturday morning. His wife gave birth to their second child today (30/09).
- The Presidents of Olympiacos BC, Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos attended the game.
