On a right foot…
The Greek Cup holders began their games for the completion gaining an easy ticket to the semi finals where they will be playing against PAOK.
Olympiacos was excellent at the “Palais des Sports” and easily beat Aris 80 – 59 with Kostas Papanikolaou, Vassilis Spanoulis and the “red” rookie Vangelis Mantzaris leading their team.
The players under Dusan Ivkovic controlled the game from the beginning and secured a safety lead being threatened only at the beginning of the second half when the home team had a six point game, but that was as far as it went.
Quarters: 9-25, 26-42, 44-65, 59-80
Aris (Αlexandris): Μavraeidis 9 (2), Κeroush 4, Vezenkof, Τapoutos 8 (8 reb.), James 2, Tsairelis 4, Demas, Oliver 16, Κrousic 4, Bohorides, Verginis 9 (1), Μaldrow 3 (1)
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Hines 4, Papanikolaou 20 (6 reb.), Antic 10 (1), Spanoulis 14 (2), Μantzaris 2 (2 st.), Howard 2, Κeselj 5, Sloukas 4 (5 as.), Papadopoulos 8 (6 reb.), Gecevicius 2, Κatsivelis, Printezis 9 (1)
DUSAN IVKOVIC: It was a game among two traditional teams with many new players in their rosters. That was obvious from the beginning. I can only talk about my team and comment that the draw brought us in front of many tough away games at the beginning, so it’s important that we started out right. We lost control in the second quarter and we had very low shooting percentages. We showed that the team has worked a lot, but we still need more work to be done. I’m worried that the League won’t be starting yet since we play in Bilbao next Friday and we need to prepare a program from tonight to keep the team in shape.
The whole country is in a very difficult situation and this also affects basketball. I don’t have the authority to make suggestions. But I’m definitely worried because just three days before the league was to begin there was no contract for the TV rights and there are huge problems to be dealt with. We left Athens aiming to stay at Thessaloniki until Saturday and now we have to go back. Our whole schedule has been changed. I understand the difficulties but you should know that things are not difficult just in Greece.
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: First of all I wish a good season to all and health to everyone. It’s important we got a start on the right foot and that we played a good game. We came in very focused and that’s why we led and imposed the rhythm. We have had some dead periods, but we came back. However, this is logical since we are a young team and we still need to work a lot. Now we have to focus on the game against Bilbao.
VANGELIS ALEXANDRIS: There is not much to say. We had a bad first quarter. We had worked well in preparing the team as to not be surprised, but when you have so many young guys this is quite normal. We could not keep up with the score. We tried to regroup, we had good and bad moments in the next three quarters, we made a six point game but we lacked quality from the bench. Olympiacos got a fair victory, but I think they were also lucky that we played without our fans. Should our fans have been in the gym, we may have been more competitive. It bothers me that in such a dire financial situation, we did not have the right to have our fans with us. We have not completed our roster yet, we have two guys with only a couple of practices on their feet.
Our roster lacks a small forward keen in scoring and we have for sure pinpointed a problem with our offense. We have been trying to find the solution through team work. We aim to create a competitive team and create a nucleus to support the team for the years to come.
It bothers me that basketball has been going downhill since 1999, without breaks. Those in charge of the sport should have tried more to find a solution.
The competition is uneven and the postponement is only fair. We have a budget of 400,000 euro and we believe that a more even distribution of the income would be more proper. Otherwise, there is no point in playing the League. We don’t want to feel like a poor relative. But I would also like to say something about Olympiacos and Panathinaikos. Each team looks for its best interests. But if you love something, then you have to protect it. Strength comes in unity, it’s been said since ancient times…
DIMITRIS VERGINIS: We let Olympiacos get ahead with the score and then we were trying to catch them. We have two young kids on the team and we are not ready, but this is no excuse for the way we played tonight. We only keep the small good periods we have had and we need to work very much if we want to succeed something both in Greece and in Europe.