Easy victory in Pilea...
The “reds” “walked through” Pilea and easily edged PAOK 77 – 49 having Erceg, Spanoulis and Nielsen as their top scorers and the 12 players sharing minutes on the floor.
Olympiacos, playing without Papaloukas, Bourousis, Vassilopoulos and Keselj, imposed the rhythm from the beginning and faced some resistance from the hosts only during the first quarter.
The Referees: Αnastopoulos, Papapetrou, Τavoulareas
Τhe quarters: 14-18 , 22-37 , 36-55 , 49-77
Per quarter: 14-18, 8-19, 14-18, 13-22
PΑΟΚ (Μarkopoulos): Μarshall 14 , Αrapis , Αpostolides 3(1) , Dedas 4 , Dozier 9 , Spiropoulos, Giannakides 5 , Κalles 8 , Gechevski 6 , Κalampakas.
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Nesterovic 6 , Gordon 8(2) , Spanoulis12(2) , Pelekanos3(1) , Mavrokefalides 6 , Halperin 5(1) , Glyniadakis 2 , Νielsen 12 , Papanikolaou, Erceg 15 , Τeodosic 5 , Κatsivelis 3.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: I know that a historic team like PAOK that has offered so much to basketball is going through a very tough time. We were in need of a tougher game. I understand the problems and the effort PAOK has been doing and I hope they find the solution. I believe they will. We continue working, we need more concentration on an individual basis, both the players and the coaches, because we are at a time when we need to give our best. Today we gave minutes to all our players and that’s positive.
I’m not looking to find excuses due to the schedule; these are the facts we have to cope with. Thankfully, I have hard working players.
This crisis Greece is going through is easily reflected in sports. Look at Croatia, a county with a huge basketball tradition and with new gyms that remain empty. We ourselves are basketball and we need to fight and make better conditions so that the gyms are not empty. We need to work more. We cannot just cancel the Cup Final due to fear. We all need to do something.
ΜΑΤT NIELSEN: It’s a difficult period without games for us and we need to keep playing as a team since we have some difficult games ahead of us. I want to thank PAOK for trying, they did the best they could despite the problems they have been facing.
SOULIS MARKOPOULOS: Olympiacos is a very good team and I would like to congratulate them. If they continue this way, they have much luck to make the Euroleague Final and why not, win the trophy. Mr. Ivkovic has wanted tough games to keep his team on the edge, so imagine what we are going through, not being able to even have decent practices to prepare the team. I hope we can correct some things and have a better image as a team in the play-offs.
Last week we made five offers to five different players and no one had wanted to come to Greece. We are trying and if we have something to announce we will do so officially.
GIORGOS APOSTOLIDES: We have had a difficult week practicing with teenagers, but the ones on the floor did the best we could. We did not succeed much tactic wise tonight. We know that Olynmpiacos is a very good team, but we should have done some things better. All those staying with the team are going to try to keep the team at a high level and I think that in the end we are going to make it. I would like to thank the fans that came to see us knowing the problems we have been facing.