Almost 100...
Olympiacos returned to victories and playing superbly in the second half of the game edged Aris 97-70. The “reds” played magnificent defense and made good offensive choices, reaching an easy victory at the League’s second round premiere.
The Piraeus team is alone at the top of the ranking with a 14-0 record and played the game in the presence of hundreds of young children from the “Mother”, “The world ark” and Special Olympics institutions.
Olympiacos was led by Bourousis, Teodosic and Vassilopoulos and playing an excellent second half, even led by 33 points (84-51).
Τhe quarters: 17-15, 44-33, 75-47, 97-70.
Per quarter: 17-15, 27-18, 31-14, 22-23.
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Papaloukas, Νesterovic 7, Spanoulis 9(1), Vassilopoulos 11(3), Bourousis 16(1), Keselj 5(1), Mavrokefalides 13, Halperin 2, Νielsen 7(1), Papanikolaou 14(2), Teodosic 13(2), Katsivelis.
Aris (Drucker): Brown 16(2), Tapoutos 14, Τucker 1, Τsairelis 10, Chatzivrettas 8, Charalampides 14, Koumpouras, Borovnjak 6, Chrysikopoulos 3(1), Τomas.
DUSAN INKOVIC: “My team won fairly. We should fix some mistakes. The last quarter against Fener had been something unexpected and unbelievable. The team was under pressure and not completely focused. We received some easy baskets in the first half”, ‘Duda’ commented and added: “Olympiacos is a 16 players’ team. Papaloukas, who did not score, was very good. We have an advantage at the “4” position and who ever thinks this is because Vassilopoulos scored 3/4 3-pointers today, is wrong. No team has won titles with shooting. Mavrokefalides is a great athlete and he should not be under pressure on whether he scores or not. That’s what we told him before the game. We wanted a game where we would keep control for most of the 40 minutes”.
At half time, I told the guys to stop complaining to the referees and play basketball. I tried to help the refs as well, telling them to stay focused and play.
LOUKAS MAVROKEFALIDES: “We started stressed out. We balanced the game in the second quarter and we were very good. It’s only logical that you lose it when you find rhythm and they manage to take you out of it.”
SARON DRUCKER: Olympiacos deserved to win. We made a very good first half, apart from some plays at the end of the half time. In the third quarter, the difference between the two teams was obvious. Olympiacos opened the rhythm and played better defense resulting getting ahead with a broad lead. As far as the quality of the two teams is concerned, this is the difference.
Coaches live under pressure and that’s part of the job. Our team has had some bad results, just like it happens with all the teams, all over Europe. We are in a route for the third place, which is the goal of the team, we are the in the Cup semi finals and we are making a good route in the Eurocup. All else are not in my hands.
MICHALIS TSAIRELIS: We knew the game would be very difficult. We prepared well for it. We played well in the first half, but we could not continue the same way in the second and it was fair that we lost.