Olympiacos Piraeus vs. CSKA: 75-81 (+6)
Olympiacos: Green (8 + 4 rb), Birch (10 + 4 rb + 2 bs), Papapetrou (3), Spanoulis (14 + 5 as + 7 to + 5 pf), Milutinov (3 + 3 rb + 3 to), Printezis (26 + 7 rb), Papanikolaou (6 + 8 rb + 4 as + 4 pf), Mantzaris (3 + 4 rb + 5 pf), Hackett (2 + 3 rb), Lojeski (4 rb)…
CSKA: De Colo (23 + 9 rb), Teodosic (10 + 5 as), Augustine (2), Jackson (15 + 5 as), Antonov (3), Vorontsevich (11 + 4 rb), Higgins (2 + 4 rb), Kurbanov (2 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Hines (13 + 4 rb)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Overall we were better on the court. We showed determination from the very first moment, knowing what we were going to face over here. Olympiacos is a team with very concrete and direct ideas on what they want to do on the court. They have changed some things this year: running more, being more physical on the boards, and trying not to turn over the ball. The fact that we were dominant in those elements, considering that we did not let them run in the open court and forced them into turnovers from their best players, and Vassilis Spanoulis is one of the best there is. And my team not turning over the ball, as I told them, lets us make plays.
I think we were dominant in the first half. I said in half time that knew and expected Olympiacos to come back. They have a great team, they are built to go to the Final Four, so we expected that. But we took care about the ball. And what I said in the locker room is exactly what happened after that. You know many times when we play a great half, we usually go in the locker room and say, ’Forget about the first half, we got to play the second.’ I went in today and said, ’Remember the first half and try to control the ball, not turning it over that much.’ I think the number of 10 turnovers is great for us. When we don’t turn over the ball, we can make big plays. Defensively, also, we were good. We did not allow Olympiacos to run in their home. I think they were first in productivity on primary and secondary fastbreaks. So that’s another win in this starting stretch of Euroleague. Congratulations to all the players. They had a huge contribution, each of them.
