Siena gains the advantage...
Olympiacos was edged by Siena 65 – 82 and it is now the Italians that have the advantage as for the Barcelona Final Four.
The “reds” were unrecognizable compared to their first game and paid their many mistakes from the beginning to the end of the game.
The Italians took advantage of their many offensive rebounds and played the way they should in order to make the break in the Olympiacos home court.
The quarters: 12-20, 31-39, 51-61, 65-82
Per quarter: 12-20, 19-19, 20-22, 14-21
Οlympiacos (Dusan Ivkovic): Papaloukas 5(1), Νesterovic 10, Spanoulis 12, Bourousis 7(1), Μavrokefalides 16, Papanikolaou 5(1), Erceg 9(1), Gordon 1
Siena (Simone Pianigiani): Ζisis 9(1), Hairston 19(1), Carraretto 6, Rakovic 12, Lavrinovic 8(1), Kaukenas 14(1), Michelori, Jaric 7, Stonerook 7(2)
The quotes…
DUSAN IVKOVIC: Siena was better. It was a hard game for us to prepare. I knew we wouldn’t be able to play again a defense that would leave a 20% shooting margin to the opponent. I never anticipated that kind of pressure, especially from my more experienced players. We started badly, with nine turnovers in the first quarter and despite it seemed we had a chance to fix the situation in the second half, at the end of third quarter we could not react at all. We only made two fouls in that time and we did not have the chance to change the flow of the game. We paid dearly the 22 turnovers and the 13 offensive rebounds of Siena. You saw that there has a break in all home courts at all four pairs of the quarter finals. We have four days to prepare the game against Siena. We won all critical games on the road in February. We are going to have some rotations in our roster, we’ll see if Teodosic can help us.
The game was decided by details and a poor defense. I believe my team has personality, knows how to play on the road and we are going to prepare the best we can.
TEO PAPALOUKAS:. We knew it was going to be a tough game. Siena is a very good team. The first game did not help us prepare for the second one. No matter how hard you try, you cannot remain absolutely focused. Siena had nothing to lose. Their pride was hurt, the entered the game very hard and when they got a wide lead, it was hard for us to return. The gym was packed and we had wanted to satisfy our fans. This team still has not the experience to manage these situations. I cannot blame anyone for this. I also hadn’t been as ready as I would have wanted to. But we have to have the will to stay together. We should make an example of this game, because, just like the Tuesday game had been over, this one is also over. Next Tuesday there will be a totally different game.
Life goes on. I have played this phase many times and I know that no matter what we had done on Tuesday, we still have to do more now. We have to see what it was we did wrong, to work and improve our weak spots and try to win at least one game in Italy to regain the home court advantage. We have to remain grounded and help one another resurface, because now we are under water level. We have to breathe. We have proved we can do it. No one can say that from being a great team, we suddenly became a bad team. The pressure is now on Siena, they have to prove that they can make it in their own home court.
SIMONE PIANIGIANI: I’m happy. In any case, Olympiacos is still the favorite. They have the experience, the roster, but the victory has been very important for us nevertheless. Not only because we remain within achieving qualification to the Final Four, but also because we managed to react after suffering such a huge defeat. I’m proud for my associates and my players, since for many of them, it’s the first time they experience something of this level. Olympiacos destroyed us two days ago, controlled the game for 40 minutes in a superb atmosphere just 24 hours ago. I repeat, the reds still have the advantage. We gave everything for the victory and now, in the presence of our fans, we are going to try and qualify. I don’t want to live the same experience that I had against Panathinaikos two years ago. Although, I know it can happen again.
We had to practice at the stadium after nine in the evening; it was hard to stay the whole day in the hotel. We moved practice two hours earlier; we only played a scrimmage, because the players needed to get rid off of the defeat. There is no issue with Olympiacos, they have been extremely friendly and helpful towards us.