Super defense, substance and show time
Olympiacos was quite good against PAOK whom it bested 80-55 for the 7th day of the Basket League SKRATS.
The 'reds' showed they were meaning business from the beginning. Playing quite good defense the players of Giannis Sferopoulos allowed PAOK a scoring record of 13 points in the first quarter and took a 18-13 lead.
The Piraeus team began finding even more solutions in the offense in the second quarter and thus sealed a 40-31 first half. Olympiacos was explosive in the third quarter. The 'reds' defense was impenetrable, the players produced a substantive show time in the offense and the third quarter ended 66-42.
Excellent defense was the norm in the fourth quarter as well, and the difference was kept above 20 points with the Giannis Sferopoulos team succeeding a 80-55 victory.
The quarters: 18-13, 40-31, 66-42, 80-55
Olympiacos (Sferopoulos): Petway 7 (1), Dunston 3, Spanoulis 15 (1 3p, 5as), Sloukas 5 (1 3p, 3as), Lafayette 8 (2 3p, 3as), Hunter 10 (5reb, 1bl), Agravanis 11 (2 3p, 3 reb, 1as, 3bl), Mantzaris 10 (3 3p, 5 reb, 2as), Kavvadas, Darden 11 (8 reb, 2as, 2st), Christodoulou (2reb, 1as), Mouratos.
PΑΟΚ (Markopoulos): Langford 6, Liapis 2, Charalampidis 12 (1), Carter 10 (7 reb), Kakaroudis 4, Tsochlas 5 (1), Dedas 5 (1), Margaritis 2, Kottas, Odum 1, Vaughn 2, Saloustros 6.
GIANNIS SFEROPOULOS: "It was good we won Valencia, but I had said that we had not played the way we wanted in defense. A big part of our preparation towards this game was more focused on the defensive part. We played a good defensive game tonight. We may not have played a very good offensive first quarter, but we only received 13 points in defense. Thus, we built a small margin in the first quarter, which became bigger in the second one. From that point on, we controlled the game through our defense and I believe we were even more focused in the third quarter, when we received the less points compared to the rest ones, we made easy baskets in the fast break and free shots we hadn't been able to make in the first half. And finally we have had a good day thanks to our defense, which offered pluralism in offense and a better quota in the assists-turnovers comparison, so our offense was working well at times. I would finally like to congratulate PAOK and the coach and wish them all the best".
VASSILIS KAVVADAS: "Congratulations to PAOK for their effort today, they are a remarkable team that is after the high ranking spots in the Greek League. On the other hand, we are trying to do our job at every game, where we try to be strong, competitive, decisive and tough. This is how we want to be for 40 minutes in a game, we are now focusing on Laboral Kutxa. Finally, I would like to say that I really liked being in a gym with many fans, school kids as well and I hope this continues".
SOULIS MARKOPOULOS: "Congratulations to Olympiacos for its victory, which was fair, they were better than us. They pressed full court, during the whole game. We were quite competitive up to a point in the first half, but the third quarter was catastrophic for us. We weren't able to find solutions against the opposing defense, we made a lot of turnovers resulting in the increase of the difference and the game becoming easy for the hosts. We now need to focus since we have many tough games ahead of us. Good luck to Olympiacos".
MARC CARTER: "Congratulations to Olympiacos for the victory. They played a good game and they are one of the best teams in forcing you into turnovers, so they can score easy baskets at fast break. That actually killed us".