Return to winning...
After the elimination to Siena, what Olympiacos had wanted was an easy victory and a good game against Kolossos. Both questions were answered and the ‘reds’ remained alone at the top of the ranking with a 93-63 victory.
Without Vassilis Spanoulis (bedridden) and Raso Nesterovic (resting), the Piraeus players started the game focused against the Kolossos team and went on the same way to the end despite the sharing of minutes among all twelve players.
The lead went as broad as to 32 points just before the end (90-58), with the Ivkovic’ players never hitting the break.
The quarters: 21-14, 42-25, 75-46, 93-63
Οlympiacos (Ivkovic): Papaloukas 1, Gordon, Bourousis 20 (1), Pelekanos 2, Μavrokefalides 15, Halperin 8 (1), Glyniadakis, Νielsen 17 (1), Papanikolaou 6, Erceg 12 (1), Teodosic 11 (1), Katsivelis 1
Κolossos (Sferopoulos): Calathes 16 (1), Kafkis, Jordan 7 (1), Panos 6, Μanolopoulos 12 (2), Αsimakopoulos 4, Charisis 2, Τsamis 10 (2), Kolemac 3, Georgalis 1, Danas, Ivanovic 2
The quotes…
DUSAN IVKOVIC: The team has had a good reaction. We have had a very tough return trip on Friday and one practice on Saturday. The fans have been nice to us. It hasn’t been an easy game. You saw that Barcelona lost. It has been tough on everyone, but we all have to be professionals and keep going. We have been very good defense wise in the first half, all twelve players have played and we continue with our work.
On Keselj: Keselj could not play. We will decide on when he’s ready to get back on the roster. His injury kept him out more than we had anticipated, but his comeback is probably close.
On Siena: We were justifiably eliminated. Why should we be disappointed? I did the best I could have done. We lost a lot of energy. Siena was the better team. They beat us in all our weaknesses. They have been the strangest play-offs following the first game. We continue with our work. It was right we got eliminated and that’s a fact. Think how tough it has to be on Barcelona that has a Final Four to organize…
On the pressure following the elimination: I don’t think there is any. Our job is to help each player find his role and his position. I’ll take the whole responsibility if you would like. The team had no reaction at all. From receiving 70 points while at the TOP-16, we went up to 84 in the play-offs. We have young guys and experienced players that did not help as much as they could have. Maybe I did not help them as much as I could have. Spanoulis, who has the flu and did not play today, has never been treated so roughly in his life. We have to learn what this kind of defense means. Our goals were clear and I had stated them from the beginning. I had never expected the injuries, I had never expected 19 days with schedule changes. Nevertheless, we should not be looking for alibis. The Final Four had been our goal and we failed it.
On the Marko Jaric statements: I at least am a serious person. I don’t want to make any comment. If you can’t say anything nice for fellow patriot, then you shouldn’t also say anything bad. You know how we have treated Siena. What is there for me to say?
On the fans: I would like to really thank them for their support, especially during the second game. I told my players that I can understand all kinds of mistakes. What I cannot understand is how we managed in that game to come as close to a four point margin and never managed to make the upset. Olympiacos has the best fans, they will understand and they are going to help us. I believe the fans will return and help us.
DEMETRIS KATSIVELIS: It’s obvious the elimination to Siena has had a toll on us. We need to respond because we have to more goals ahead of us. We have made one step forward with this victory, life goes on and we need to be optimistic. Before even what happened with the Euroleague, our main goal has been the Greek Championship. Our desire to win it has not diminished.
GIANNIS SFEROPOULOS: The score speaks for itself. The game has been very difficult. We knew that Olympiacos would try to react and would try to play very hard defense. We tried to stay in the game as much as possible. We did not make it. We want to gain experience and that’s why we shared minutes. All my players needed the experience in view of the rest of the games. There are three more games till the end of the regular season, we will fight them all and I hope that we are going to be in the play-offs for a third season in a row…
A team like Kolossos cannot aim high because this will only cause vertigo. We try to work and not look either at the ranking or at the results of the other teams. We want to do the best we can. Of course, if we rank seventh or eighth, we are not going to have any luck in the play-offs, other than try to win even one game, something we have not done up to now.
SOTIRIS MANOLOPOULOS: Congratulations to Olympiacos. We knew they would react after the elimination; the coach would push them to that direction. We tried to be competitive; the coach gave us all minutes. I wish Olympiacos good luck and we are going to try and finish at highest possible place.