Return with a victory
Olympiacos returned to the Greek League with an 81-70 victory in the home court of Ilysiakos for a postponed game for the 23rd day of the A1 League.
The Piraeus team started the game kind of numb. Anyway, it wasn’t so easy to switch to the Greek reality and Ilysiakos took advantage of it, leading 20-19 at the first quarter. Olympiacos though upped the tempo somehow in the second quarter and came ahead 39-38.
Hines, Law and Antic continued their amazing performances and with continuous points put Olympiacos on the lead even by 10 points by midst of the third quarter. Giorgos Bartzokas tried different quintets and formations, gave key players minutes to rest and Olympiacos reached a rather comfortable 81-70.
This victory is the 24th for the team of Giorgos Bartzokas in the Greek League and there is now one more game to be played for the Regular Season against Apollon Patron on Saturday at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
Τhe quarters: 20-19, 38-39, 55-63, 70-81
Ilysiakos (Liogas): Kafkis 2, Anagonye 15 (1), Αpostolides, Chatzis 12 (1), Dorkofikis, Αntonakis 2, Morrison 19 (1), Whishe 5 (1), Maras 8, Paragios 2, Stogklin 5.
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 13, Law 14, Antic 8 (2), Spanoulis 14 (2), Perperoglou 5 (1), Sloukas, Powell 8, Perkins 5, Printezis 5 (1), Papanikolaou 3 (1), Georgakis 1, Κatsivelis 5 (1).
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “We resumed our Greek League games and we are now aiming to our last goal. We came here to do exactly what we did. That is to win by doing the absolutely necessary. We are happy in that regard. We wanted to use different quintets; we want to use Perkins more, these games are not like practices, they are part of our preparation in view of the play-offs. To play well and for your body to follow you on the court, you have to remain in the spirit. We have to understand though that it’s only natural that the motivation tonight has not been great.
DIMITRIS KATSIVELIS: “It was a weird game for us, after the success in the Final Four; we had to turn the switch. We were slow in the beginning but got better later into the game and won it. We are now focusing on the play-offs and to winning the championship”.
* Before the jump ball of the game, the President of Ilysiakos BC, Pantelis Gambierakis paid tribute to the Olympiacos BC Presidents, Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos, as well as to the coach of our team, Giorgos Bartzokas. Nikos Chatzis, the Ilysiakos captain, presented the Olympiacos captain, Vassilis Spanoulis with a flower arrangement.