A Victory in his "Poli"
Olympiacos prevailed, after a thrilling game that ended 91-87 in overtime, over Anadolu Efes in Istanbul and reached 4-1 on the season with the first half of Euroleague's Regular Season coming to a close.
The game began exquisitely for Giannis Sfairopoulos' team and the Greek Champions got a 13-20 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Piraeus team's defense was amazing during the first half with Olympiacos even getting the margin to double digits and the half finally ending with the score at 30-36 for the "Red and Whites".
In the third quarter the Turkish team with consecutive three pointers decreased the gap and finally managed to get the lead, but Olympiacos evened the score at 54 apiece at the 30 minute mark. In the last quarter things didn't start well for Olympiacos. Efes even got an 11 point lead (72-61) at 36', but at that point Olympiacos turned the tables once more. With a 4-15 run in 4 minutes the score became 76-76 and the game went to overtime. There, Giannis Sfairopoulos' player showed great character and reached victory with the final score being 87-91.
Quarters: 13-20, 30-36, 54-54, 87-91.
Anadolu Efes (Ivkovic): Tyus 2, Balbay, Brown 9, Osman 2, Batuk 3 (1), Saric 11 (1), Korkmaz 2, Granger 26 (3), Heurtel 12 (3), Diebler 9 (2), Dunston 7, Duverioglu 4.
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Young 2, Hunter 15 (4reb), Papapetrou 11 (1reb, 2as, 1stl), Strawberry 9 (1 3P, 4reb, 1as), Printezis 17 (1 3P, 4reb, 1as), Agravanis 5 (1), Mantzaris (2reb, 2as, 1stl), Hackett 11 (3 3P, 2reb, 8as, 2stls), Lojeski 11 (2 3P, 7reb, 5as, 1stl), Athinaiou 4 (1 3P, 2reb).
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: “It's a very big win for us because we played against a great team. Efes is very strong at home. This victory is important for many reasons. We showed character, didn't give up when down by 11, showed character when our starting Center got injured and left the game with his backup only having practiced once. The first half belonged 100% to us, we had control and held Efes to 30 points. At halftime we said that Efes was definitely going to try and react and we should continue being focused. On one hand we maintained it, but in the beginning, we gave up a lot of open looks, many three pointers, and they got the game where they wanted it. They score 18 points in the fourth quarter in the first minutes, but we didn't give up, we fought and we got the victory. Ultimately the game went to overtime as we lost a crucial free throw in the end. In overtime our defense was good and we scored some crucial points on the fast break. Congratulations to my players, it was a good win, but from tomorrow we're leaving it behind us and we continue towards the next game”.