A 9-0 record with a triplet on fire
The European and Greek Champion, Olympiacos, stormed through Crete as well, besting Rethymnon78 – 64 and reaching a 9-0 record for the Greek League thus remaining alone and undefeated at the top.
The players of Giorgos Bartzokas could not find rhythm in the first quarter and thus the home team led 18-15. However, from the second quarter on, the ‘reds’ playing their standard defense stopped the Rethymnon assets, led 37-29 at half time and then everything came effortlessly.
Spanoulis and Hines were the best and together with Printezis and Papanikolaou led Olympiacos to +14 (56-42 at 30’). Everything was decided and the last quarter gave Giorgos Bartzokas a good opportunity to try rotations and players in view of the game against Armani Jeans Milano for the last game of the Euroleague Regular Season.
The quarters: 18-15, 29-37, 42-56, 64-78
Rethymnon (Koufos): Horn, Κallinikidis, Coleman 2, Angelopoulos 7 (1), Tsochlas 5 (1), Duvnjak 7, Kommatos 11 (1), Carter 13, Latovic 3 (1), Pettway 16 (2).
Οlympiacos (Bartzokas): Hines 15, Law 8, Antic, Spanoulis 11 (1), Perperoglou, Sloukas 7 (1), Mavroeidis 1, Powell 7, Gecevicius 5 (1), Printezis 13 (1), Papanikolaou 6, Mantzaris 5 (1).
GIORGOS BARTZOKAS: “We hadn’t expected an easy afternoon since we knew that Rethymnon is very competitive and we haven’t had the time to prepare the game well following the trip to Croatia. I believe we were the favorites to win, and this shows in the difference we have had in rebounds, turnovers and assists. We controlled the tempo and got what we wanted, that is victory, giving minutes at the same time. The presence of fans of both teams and the atmosphere in the gym was nothing but positive for basketball”.
VANGELIS MANTZARIS: “Congratulations to my team for the victory, but also, congratulations to Rethymnon, for being an example for many teams. We started out kind of numb and were trailing in the first quarter, but then, using defense as our weapon, led the score and imposed our rhythm in the second half. I would like to thank our fans for making us feel that today we were playing at home and I hope that on Friday against Armani our gym is going to be full”.
*Before the jump-ball, Olympiacos fans gave the ‘reds’ a commemorative plate in honor of their last season’s success. Milan Tomic received the plate on behalf of the club.
*The Administration of Rethymnon welcomed Olympiacos as the European Champion and the whole gym gave the ‘reds’ a warm applause, while a little before the end, when the captain Vassilis Spanoulis went to the bench, the crowd gave him an ovation which V-Span acknowledged.