Alone at the top
Olympiacos easily edged Bamberg and remained alone at the top of the group. The “reds” beat the German team 86-69 and took advantage of the defeat of Real Madrid to Unicaja to remain alone at the top ranking spot.
Bamberg took Olympiacos by surprise and entered the game stronger, but the entrance of captain Teo Papaloukas shifted balance. The experienced guard, together with Lucas Mavrokefalides led their team, at the same time the ‘reds” were playing good defense. By the end of the first half, the lead was at 14 points (48-34) and at 18 a little later (58-40) and till the end of the game, the players of Dusan Ivkovic completely controlled the game.
Τhe quarters: 18-18, 48-34, 66-51, 86-69
Οlympiacos (Ίvkovic): Papaloukas 10, Νesterovic 4, Spanoulis 16(1), Bourousis 12, Κeselj 5(1), Μavrokefalides 16(1), Νielsen 6, Papanikolau 12(3), Τeodosic 3(1), Lucas 2.
Brose Baskets (Fleming): Goldberry 6(2), Τerry 2, Suput 2, Tadda, Pleiss 16(2), Roberts 13, Jacobsen 9(2), Gavel 6, Hines 15.
The quotes…
Dusan Ivkovic had not much to say for the game. The dominance of Olympiacos had been complete and the Serb head coach made some technical analysis…
“We won the game fairly. We played very good basketball at times in the game. It was an important game for us and that’s why we prepared very well. Brose Baskets is not a big name, but plays good basketball. Our first defensive goal had been to stop 3-pointers and we did that. We should have played better against their big guys. Our second quarter was very good”, the Serb stressed.
The Olympiacos head coach also spoke about what comes next: “December is very important for us. We have two away games for the Euroleague against Unicaja and Charleroi. I believe we can show a better face”.
Chris Fleming stressed in turn: “Olympiacos completely controlled the game from the beginning of the second quarter. To beat Olympiacos, you have to remain absolutely focused for 40 minutes. The big guys of Olympiacos that came from the bench and especially Bourousis dominated the game and we had no answer for them”.
Vassilis Spanoulis… “There is not easy game in basketball. It is us who make it easy.We found rhythm kind of late in the game, but then we played very good basketball. We were good defensively till the last quarter when we lost control and made some mistakes. The road ahead of us is a long one. We are getting better from game to game and we want to be ready when it counts. We have to look into our mistakes after every defeat. Find what went wrong and fix it”.
Loukas Mavrokefalides.. “We played very good basketball against a strong team. I have always had a long range shot, but I need to improve on that because this is the only way defenses open up”.