One more victory…
With Kostas Papanikolaou playing his best game with Olympiacos shirt, the “reds” had no problem reaching an easy 24th victory in the regular season and are now one step away from the first place.
The Dusan Ivkovic players, despite coming from a huge qualification against Siena, were completely focused and actually finished the game in its beginning.
Πλέον ο Ολυμπιακός χρειάζεται μια μόνο νίκη επί του Ηλυσιακού τη Μεγάλη Τετάρτη στα Ιλίσια για να σφραγίσει την πρώτη θέση στην κανονική διάρκεια του πρωταθλήματος.
Now Olympiacos needs only one victory against Ilysiakos on Wednesday at Ilysia to secure the first place of the League’s Regular Season.
The quarters: 25-7, 51-27, 70-43, 85-60.
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Χines 9, Antic 4 (6 reb.), Spanoulis 3, Κeselj 3 (1), Pelekanos 2, Gecevicius 5 (1), Glyniadakis , Printezis 12, Papanikolaou, 22 (5/6 2p, 2/3 3p, 6/6 1p., 10 reb.), Μantzaris 5 (1 3p., 5 as.) Sloukas (3/3 2p., 2/2 3p., 4/4 1p., 6 as. 2st.), Κatsivelis.
Κavala (Priftis): Pasalic, Georgiev 3 (1), Arapis, Αngelopoulos 10 (2), Damianovic 14, Τaylor 12 (1), Stefanidis 6, Georgakis 3, Κostov 3, Κarapostolou 5 (1), Simtsak ( 4).
DUSAN IVKOVIC: I wish to thank Mr. Priftis for his kind words. For me, it was really important to have Olympiacos ready, to be focused on court, to show maturity, although having to face a lot of problems. I asked for good control of the game against a team that logically had no rhythm. We showed perseverance as a team, we showed that we were ready when we played Siena.
We did not play well however at the last quarter against Kavala. It’s not something tragic, but I expect more focus. We played without four players. I had expected for Vassilopoulos to play, but he felt some discomfort in his knee, although he is better now. Papadopoulos was also having some discomfort.
I believe that Law and Dorsey will join us in practice from today on and we will be having 16 players with us for the time to come. It’s going to be very important for us, if we succeed so.
ΚOSTAS PAPANIKOLAOU: Congratulations to Kavala for everything they have done during the season. The most important quarter had been the first, because we started the game really focused. It’s very common to fail following a great success. We ran and played very good defense in the beginning. We did not play as we ought to in the fourth quarter and we have to improve on that. We shouldn’t relax for a second and play the same from the beginning to the end, if we are to be called a great team.
DIMITRIS PRIFTIS: Congratulations for the qualification to the Final Four, but most of all, on the way they have worked and have and have created a team with a plan for the future. This is the most important thing and the greatest success for Olympiacos. We haven’t played in a month, not even a friendly game with another team. This cost us. Olympiacos used all their players and we actually found some opportunities to score some more. Now, we are only thinking about the future and on how we are going to wrap up the season. Good luck to Olympiacos in view of the Final Four.
ΜICHAEL TAYLOR: Congratulations to Olympiacos for qualifying to the Final Four. It was a tough game for us, we had no rhythm, because hadn’t played in a long time. We received many easy points at fast break and the margin was wide from the beginning, resulting in not being able to keep up with the score.