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Olympiacos edged AEK in the semis and on Sunday (20/02, 16.00 CET) will be contesting the first title of the season.

“Congratulations to AEK”, was what the Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas said in the beginning and went on commenting: “They put up a huge effort to remain in the game and get the credit. It was an easy thing to do on their part. It was a game they were losing by 18 points in the second half, so the mere fact that they closed in and the game ended on that note, makes everyone happy. On the other hand, as you can realize, we wanted to win the game. What really counts in these tournaments is the win. In no way did we underestimate the opponent, however, we never found rhythm with our execution. We have had really low percentages with totally open shots. That was coach Dedas’ choice. He chose to allow open shots. You are that open to shoot that you need to have a really good percentage and that’s the point where you begin to think, to hesitate… We could have ended the game on a broader margin, however, we have things to learn from this game and prepare for the next one”.

On his part, Sasha Vezenkov pointed out: “It was a particular game. We started out kind of nervously, we did not play the kind of basketball we can play, but we only keep the victory. We have had some good periods in between, we are going to look at our mistakes and I’m perfectly sure we are going to appear more ready, both physically and mentally on Sunday to contest the first title of the season”.