Ready for the final…
Olympiacos had no problem edging Ikaros Kallithea 100-63 proving to be absolutely ready for the Cup Final against Panathinaikos.
The Dusan Ivkovic players followed their favorite pattern when playing against smaller caliber opponents. This is none other than controlling the tempo from the beginning and never stepping on the breaks.
Dusan Ivkovic gave minutes to all his players but their performance was maintained at an even level with the “reds” being even better in the second half.
The quarters: 26-14, 51-31, 69-42, 100-63
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Hines 11, Antic 3 (7reb.), Spanoulis 7 (1 3p., 10as.), Dorsey 10, Κeselj 12 (3), Pelekanos, Papadopoulos 8, Gecevicius 5 (1), Printezis 8, Papanikolaou 16, Μmantzaris 10 (2), Sloukas 4.
Ikaros Kallithea (Skourtopoulos): Skordilis 4 (5reb.), Baxter 11 (1), Koumpouras, Κarampoulas, Τsiaras 2, Vasiljevic 10 (3), Agadakos 5 (5reb.), Banes 10 (7 reb.), Beck 11 (3), Ljubisic 5(1), Panagiotaras, Larentzakis 5 (1).
DUSAN IVKOVIC: “Ikaros and Olympiacos have totally different goals. We had nothing to hide or hold back in view of the final. I’m trying to maintain focus. The team has to be serious and have goals. Time works in our favor, so that we can give our best in every game. Tonight we showed team spirit the way I want it from my team, although we did not start out well. However, we got serious next and all our 12 players scored. No one had a negative ranking.
We wanted to play at a later time, but TV told us this could not be done. I don’t understand why we have to play at 16:00 on a working day. It seems we don’t want to learn from the best. Unfortunately, we live in the shadow of football.
Unfortunately, Law got injured in the last 30 seconds of the game against Galatasaray, which is very bad. He got injured at the worst moment possible. He told me that he will be coming to practice tomorrow and wants to play. However, I don’t know if he’s able to. He still hurts a lot”.
KOSTAS PAPANIKOLAOU: “We have to remain focused, be mentally prepared and do whatever our coach asks us to. It’s a great game, it’s a final.
We weren’t really focused in the first half tonight. We made some mistakes, allowed some free shots and some fast breaks to our opponent. We got better in the second half, but we still made some mistakes we have to analyze on video in view of the Saturday final”.
ΚYLE HINES: We should focus on the game since it was a good opportunity to get prepared in view of the cup final. We played well together as team; we have a difficult test ahead of us on Saturday and a tough way ahead. We have to keep playing like that to reach our goals.