A winner in Valencia as well...
Olympiacos doubled his victories against Valencia and now has the upper hand as far as qualification to the Euroleague play-offs is concerned. The “reds” under Dusan Ivkovic played superbly in Spain and put the foundations for the victory at the exact right moment (79-85).
Apart from the beginning, when Valencia controlled the game winning the offensive rebounds, in all the rest of the game the Piraeus team retained control and paced the game, with Bourousis carrying the weight in the first quarter, Spanoulis and Papaloukas taking the reign and Teodosic with Nesterovic making the closure.
Jamon Gordon was also of tremendous importance, playing defense that gave a lot of solutions at critical points.
Τhe quarters: 17-20, 37-37, 55-53, 79-85
Per quarter: 17-20, 20-17, 18-16, 24-32
Valencia (Svetislav Pesic): Cook 11(3), Augustine 3, Claver 16, Lishchuk 9, Νavarro, Μartinez 12(2), Pietrus 2, Savanovic 16(2), De Colo 2, Javtokas 8.
Οlympiacos (Dusan Ivkovic): Papaloukas 4, Νesterovic 16, Spanoulis 18(3), Bourousis 12(1), Pelekanos 4, Mavrokefalides 6, Νielsen, Papanikolaou, Erceg 12(1), Teodosic 11(1), Gordon 2
DUSAN IVKOVIC: It was a tough game during all 40 minutes between two teams that like to press. It was a performance of modern basketball. We did not start well and Valencia got to score after getting the offensive rebounds.
In the second quarter, when we led by nine and Valencia got to react, I waited for the five minutes time out that was late and we lost our concentration. We have shown character after the defeat to Fenerbahce and I think that we deserved tonight’s win.
Injuries are a part of the game and I’m lucky to have players that were ready to play. Pelekanos has helped us for some minutes, Jamon helped a lot. I hope that, apart from Vassilopoulos, we are going to face any more serious injuries and the guys can return soon.
VASSILIS SPANOULIS: The team has shown character. Just like with all the tough away games. We got a very big victory and we are moving on. We knew that should we lost in Valencia, it would be very possible not to qualify. That’s why we had no other option but to win”, Spanoulis commented and continued: “We stayed together during rough times and succeeded in our goals. We did exactly what we had to do. And now we are looking forward. We need to win in Istanbul to be first in the group. The way things have turned out; we just need to win to be first. And we have shown that this team can do it.
LUCAS GORDON: We have two more finals ahead of us and we need to focus on these two games rather than celebrating already.