A great victory for Olympiacos at the premiere
Olympiacos began this season's Eurolegue with a victory beating a very strong Valencia in its home court 71-68.
The game had a good beginning for our team. Spanoulis, Hunter and Mantzaris were good in offense and Olympiacos was leading 18-20 at the end of the first quarter.
Our team improved its defense in the second quarter, found rhythm in offense through its defense and maintained the lead with half time ending 36-38 in favor of the team led by Milan Tomic.
The captain, Vassilis Spanoulis, continued his productive game into the third quarter. Sloukas and Lojeski also took some of the offensive burden, defense was working fine and the 'reds' were maintaining a 3 to 5 point lead throughout the quarter that ended 54-56.
Our team did not score for three minutes into the fourth quarter and the Spaniards had the chance to take the lead 58-56. The hosts even had a four point game (62-58), but a rotation of four "short" players allowed Olympiacos to run a partial 8-0 and lead 62-66, two minutes before the end. Valencia answered back with a 4-0 streak of its own tying the game 66-66 with one minute to go. Sloukas had cold blood when shooting free throws in contrary to the Valencia players and Olympiacos got an important 68-71 victory.
The quarters: 18-20, 36-38, 54-56, 68-71
Valencia (Perasovic ): Ribas 2, Van Rossom 10 (2), Sato 11 (1), Lishchuk 3, Lucic 6 (1), Vives, Martinez, Buyckes 11 (1), Loncar 8, Aguilar 3 (1), Harangody 14.
Olympiacos (Tomic): Petway (8 reb, 3as, 1bl), Hunter 9 (6reb), Dunston (3reb, 1bl), Spanoulis 21 (4), Sloukas 14 (1), Agravanis, Mantzaris 9 (3 3p, 2reb, 2st, 2as), Lafayette 4 (4reb, 5as), Lojeski 14 (4reb).
MILAN TOMIC: "We knew that Valencia plays very strong defense on the ball. They play very strong defense in their home court. We reacted well when we were four points behind, but with enough concentration found our way back to the game. We allowed only a couple of fast breaks for Valencia; we did an excellent job in that part".
Then, the Olympiacos coach talked about two of his players' performance. "I would like to talk about Petway, who did not score tonight, but was one of our best players. In regard to what we had prepared for rotations in our defense, he did it all, he was everywhere. I would also like to talk about Vassilis Spanoulis, who once again showed why he's the best player in Europe at the moment".
As for what Milan Tomic has prepared before the game, he said that "we had said that if we wanted to control the rhythm, we should maintain control of the rebounds and stop Valencia's fast breaks. They like to run and even shoot threes in fast breaks and we did not allow them to do that. We did that through our defense as well as with our offensive rebounds".
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: "It was a difficult game, we premiered in a tough home court and it's for sure that not a lot of teams are going to win here. If Valencia gets into rhythm, things will be tough for anyone. We stopped them at 66 points, we were in rhythm and this is important".
Next, the Greek guard stressed that "from what it seems our defeat in OAKA taught us something. The last minutes kind of reminded me of something, but fortunately we got the rebound following the missed free throw, we were lucky and won the game. We know that we have a lot of absentees in the small forward position and that's why we had to adjust and play with four short guys. All the players helped out and we expect help from everyone on the team. It was a good victory to help our psychology after the defeat in OAKA. We focus at one game at a time and a victory is always important. The season is just beginning, we are not just a good team, we are a Champions team".