The guys in ‘red’
Olympiacos, following a very exciting game, which was decided after two overtimes, beat AEK on the road 100-93 and remains at the top seed of the Basket League SKRATS.
The Greek Champions showed character against AEK which they beat after 50 (!!!) game minutes and they continue holding the top ranking spot of the Basket League SKRATS. Three Piraeus players finished the game having scored two digit points.
THE DEFENSE: AEK is a team with plenty of offensive talent and it took two overtimes for them to score 93 points, at the same time having excellent percentages when shooting threes. In all the second half, as well as in the two prorogations, Olympiacos played very good in defense and finally got a 93-100 victory.
THE OFFENSE: It worked perfectly for the most part of the game. The 100 points are testament themselves and Giannis Sfairopoulos watched ten of his twelve players he used scoring.
THE MVP: A huge performance by Vassilis Spanoulis. The ‘Thrylos’ captain touched double-double for yet another game (26p, 9as.), made big shots, showed the way to his team mates and made all of AEK’s defense to try and contain him but to no avail.
KEEPS, FORGETS: First of all, keeps succeeding in a very tough home court and remains at the top ranking seed. Also, keeps the reaction following the tough loss at Bamberg that had both a ranking and psychological cost.
The quarters: 22-21, 42-39, 61-62, 77-77, 87-87, 93-100.
AEK (Zdovc): Papantoniou, Hairston 16 (2), Mavrokefalidis 22 (2), Brown 24 (4), Mavroeidis 10, Sakota 3, Milosevic 5, Green 3 (1), Carter 1, Katsivelis 9 (3), Kalampokis.
Οlympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Spanoulis 26 (2 3p, 2reb, 9as), Milutinov, Printezis 7 (1 3p, 2reb), Mantzaris 8 (2 3p, 2as), Papanikolaou 14 (1), Johnson-Odom 7 (1), Hunter 15 (7 reb, 2as), Papapetrou 7 (1 p, 2reb), Strawberry, Agravanis 2, Warrick 9 (6reb), Hackett 5 (3reb).
THE QUOTES
GIANNIS SFAIROPOULOS: «Congratulations to our players for a worthy victory. We showed character. The game was very ambivalent. AEK could have also won, they are a very good team, with good roster and chemistry. We imposed our rhythm from the beginning of the second half on. AEK made a super effort and took the game to prorogation, while we missed two more chances to win it during the regulation. Psychology was for AEK during the first overtime. That’s how it’s done, when the home team makes a comeback and leads it to overtime. We showed character, missed throws were in our favor and psychology was in our favor in the second overtime. We were calm and focused and won. Congratulations to AEK, I wish them all the best”.
Asked on how much the Lojeski absence has had an impact on the team and whether this is the reason the team is not playing well for the Euroleague, Sfairopoulos said: «You know for which group Olympiacos is playing. We’ll see at the end. The team is first in Greece, we have only lost one game. The team is winning in general, we cannot be winning by 10 or 20 points all the time. We have lost one game for the Greek League by four points against Panathinaikos is OAKA, so what are we exactly talking about? Olympiacos has the best offense in Greece and the best defense, I don’t know what you are exactly asking”.
In regard to the absence of Matt Lojeski he said: «The absence of Lojeski is very important. He’s a charismatic scorer, who knows the team very well and we miss him. He’s experienced, he’s been with us for years now and is a key player. He’s been practicing alone, he will start practicing with the rest of the team at a slow pace and our doctors are going to let us know when he will be fit to play”.
On Brown’s streak that led the game to overtime «We began the fourth quarter through our defense quite well, we stopped AEK from grabbing many offensive boards, since they are keen in that area of the game. At the end, it’s only logical when you lose and take these last shots, for Brown to make some big shots despite the defense on him. We cannot say that defense was not good. He’s a charismatic scorer and made some big shots”.
On the decisive contribution of Vangelis Mantzaris at the end of the game, the Greek coach said : «Mantzaris is a key player, experienced and helps us a lot, the team is counting on him AS WELL, just like on all the other players that have been with us for years and have won titles with us. When everyone is focusing on Spanoulis, he gets more chances to execute. Additionally to playing good defense, he can also help with his shooting”.
ΙOANNIS PAPAPETROU: “We were coming from a defeat that hurt us. We knew that AEK was going to make a big effort. I think we proved to have a strong heart at the end and we finally won an important game for us. Whoever played gave all, especially in defense. We certainly made a lot of mistakes, but we still won big. We have lost some Euroleague games, you cannot be winning all games. We certainly want to play better. Each game is special and we need to make a separate approach for each”.