Written on 25 November 2012. Posted in Games.

Continues undefeated ...

Olympiacos won his 7th straight game for the Greek League and continues undefeated. The Giorgos Bartzokas’ ‘reds’ edged Kolossos 88-72 in their easiest victory against the Rhodes team during recent years.

The reds began very high spirited and focused and by gaining control of the game, they may have not gained an absolute safety net due to some blank spaces, but they were actually never threatened by the hosts.

In the second half, Olympiacos stepped on the gas and broadened the margin that went above 20 points a little before the end of the game, giving the Greek and European Champions a comfortable victory.

Τhe quarters: 15-25, 37-45, 52-65, 72-88.

Κolossos Rhodes (Gkekos): Georgalis 2, Koumpouras 11, Hutten 4, Kalaitzis 4, Κalampokis 17 (1), Denty 11 (1), Langford 8, Τsaldaris 15 (3)

ΟLYMPIACOS (Barztokas): Hines 14, Law 2, Antic 10 (2), Spanoulis 7 (1), Perperoglou 9 (2), Sloukas 2, Powell 10, Printezis 14, Papanikolaou 10, Μantzaris 10 (2)

GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: The games in Rhodes are always difficult. It’s a tough court; it was also a strange hour. We have been kind of loser following the Thursday victory and this translates as not having played good defense. I have a lot of respect for Minas (i.e. Gkekos) and Kolossos, a team with many experienced players. I wish Kolossos good luck and congratulations to the guys for the victory.

ΚOSTAS PAPANIKOLAOU: Congratulations to Kolossos for the effort they’ve putting in for one more season and they also have the support of their fans. It’s always pleasant for us to play in such a nice and tough court. This has also been the key to the game. We knew how tough a court this is and we hadn’t wanted to add the fans to the equation. That’s why we had wanted to remain focused, but we have had some dead spaces that didn’t leave us the chance to relax. But we showed character at the end.

MINAS GKEKOS: We played against one of the best and most shaped up teams in Europe. Our goals are absolutely different to those of Olympiacos and I had been telling my players the whole week that we need to take the most we can from this game. To beat Olympiacos, you have to stay completely focused. We have three difficult games ahead of us, we’ll try to correct our mistakes, have our injured players get better and prepare the best we can.

KEVIN LANGFORD: It was a tough game we all knew it would be so. We tried for the best, but there was nothing more we could do. We have to move on to the following games. We still haven’t found rhythm as a team, but it’s still early and we need to find our chemistry if we want to be ready for the play-offs.