Great game in Kavala
With only eleven players, since Spanoulis, Mantzaris, Papadopoulos and Katsivelis were left out due to injuries, Olympiacos won for the second time in a row away from home in 2012 and all the more in a very difficult court.
The “reds” played a great game in Kavala and had no problem edging the home team 82 – 63, with Sloukas and Hines leading their team mates.
The hosts only resisted in the first quarter, but the players of Dusan Ivkovic using their excellent defense took a safety lead later on which they kept to the end.
The quarters: 13-14, 26-40, 45-65, 63-82.
Κavala (Priftis): Pasalic, Garisson 1, Angelopoulos 7(1), Taylor 8(1), Stefanides 4, Gelios, Karathanassis 2, Georgakis 8, Kostov 6(2), Karapostolou 2, Simtsak 17(1 3p., 6 reb.) O’Bryant 8.
Οlympiacos (Ιvkovic): Hines 15, Lucas 8, Αntic 5(1), Howard 1, Κeselj 8(2), Pelekanos 4, Gecevicius 10(2), Glyniadakis 8, Printezis 11(2), Papanikolaou 5(1), Sloukas 7(1 3p., 7 as).
DUSAN IVKOVIC: It was a fair victory and its important than only four days after the holidays we have won two very important away games. Kavala plays modern basketball and our primary goal has been to stop their guards. We did that up to a point with our defense. We hadn’t had good shooting percentages only the first quarter and we lost rebounds. It’s important that we had a positive ratio of assists against turnovers. It shows that we had been focused, especially the young guys. Despite the many injuries, we played good team basketball.
KOSTAS SLOUKAS: We remained focused in defense. Panathinaikos’ defeat in this same court made us all the more careful and we never lost control at any point of the game.
ΚΑLIN LUCAS: I think it was a tough game for both teams for all 40 minutes. The key for us has been stopping the transition game for Kavala. We played very good defense and the only problem we have had was rebounding, but we fixed that in the second half. This is being a team, playing right despite the problems and the absences.
DIMITRIS PRIFTIS: Olympiacos has been playing as a team and very well despite the absentees. The way they defend is remarkable in relation to energy and wits. We also met them tonight on a very good shooting streak. We played a decent game in the second half, but the dead period we had in the second quarter gave them the lead.
GIORGOS GEORGAKIS: Ήταν ένα πολύ δύσκολο παιχνίδι για μας. Στο πρώτο δεκάλεπτο παίξαμε όπως σχεδιάσαμε, αλλά στο δεύτερο δεκάλεπτο δεν είχαμε συγκέντρωση και ο Ολυμπιακός πήρε τη διαφορά. Στο δεύτερο ήμασταν συγκεντρωμένοι, αλλά ο Ολυμπιακός είχε πάρει τον έλεγχο.