We made it 12-0 in the A1 Basket championship with another win for the season. This time our opponent was Panionios, playing away in our SEF arena and the final score was 87-73.
The first quarter was a smart bit of play from our team, we took over from early on and quickly reached a double digit lead (21-11), whilst the second quarter followed a similar pattern. Sloukas, Bartzoukas and Hines were the heroes of the first half and Bartzokas in particular got a large amount of points during the second quarter.

The second half continued in the same vein and we kept the lead at 11 points for long stretches of the third quarter. The scoreline bobbled about but finally finished as being +12 (68-56). The game was all set for the final quarter and we never disappointed. Printezis, Antic and Mantzaris all scored three point shots during this last stage and the result was a final score of 87-73. We now move onto Siena!

The final scores were :-

1st Quarter : Olympiakos 26-15 Panionios
2nd Quarter : Olympiakos 46-29 Panionios
3rd Quarter : Olympiakos 70-56 Panionios
4th Quarter : Olympiakos 87-73 Panionios

Olympiakos : Hines 6, Low 8, Antic 2, Spanoulis 13, Perperoglou 9, Sermantini 2, Sloukas 6, Powell 12, Printezis 16), Papanikolaou 8, Mantzaris 5.

We didn't have any problems today in our basketball match and destroyed Panelefsiniakos 94-76 away in Peristeri. To be fair, we didn't have the best of openings but had grabbed a lead by the 9th minute which we improved on and maintained until the end of the game.
The second quarter saw an improvement in our team defensively but the real change came in the second half with us opening first a 15 point lead and then capitalising on this and going further to finish 18 points clear.

The quarters were :-

1st Quarter : Panelefsiniakos 18-21 Olympiakos
2nd Quarter : Panelefsiniakos 38-45 Olympiakos
3rd Quarter : Panelefsiniakos 52-67 Olympiakos
4th Quarter : Panelefsiniakos 76-94 Olympiakos

Olympiacos : Hynes, Low 6, Antic 10, Spanoulis 8, Perperoglou 10, Sermandini 5, Sloukas 8, Mavroeidis 6, Gecevicous 13, Printezis 20, Papanikolaou 3, Mantzaris 5.

Olympiakos continued their march onwards by defeating Ilysiakos by 113 to 85 points yesterday in our SEF arena. This was the tenth match of the A1 league season and only a few days before we meet Kavala for the cup semifinal.
Printezis was the best scorer of the match followed by Papanikolaou and Gecevicius.
The overall scores and scorers are as follows (pictures after) :-

Olympiakos 113-75 Ilysiakos
1st Quarter : Olympiakos 21-18 Ilysiakos
2nd Quarter : Olympiakos 55-43 Ilysiakos
3rd Quarter : Olympiakos 82-58 Ilysiakos
4th Quarter : Olympiakos 113-75 Ilysiakos

Olympiakos : Hines 9, Low, Spanoulis 2, Sloukas 13, Mavroeidis 7, Powell 14, Gecevicius 17, Printezis 24, Papanikolaou 18, Mantzaris, Georgakis 5, Katsevelis 4

We played and beat our eternal clients earlier this evening in Basketball with a 60-64 scoreline. Perperoglou and Spanoulis were the big scorers for the team and Perperoglou in particular was the catalyst for our victory.
We played well from the off earning a 4 point lead at the end of the first quarter and then building on this to go twelve points clear at halftime. This massive lead allowed us enough space to see out the game and the result was another win for our team. We did make some mistakes in the third and fourth quarters allowing the Vazelos to close our lead but we had enough skill to complete the match without losing.
The scores were :-

1st Quarter : Poutanas Gios 14-18 Olympiakos
2nd Quarter : Poutanas Gios 28-40 Olympiakos
3rd Quarter : Poutanas Gios 45-54 Olympiakos
4th Quarter : Poutanas Gios 60-64 Olympiakos
 
Olympiacos : Hines 4, Low 5, Antic 7, Spanoulis 19, Perperoglou 12, Dorsey 4, Sloukas, Mavroidis, Printezis 6, Pap 9 , Mantzaris 5.

Olympiakos are now the champions of Greece and Europe after beating the Vazeloi 82-76 in the fifth and final match of the finals. This marks a tremendous year for Olympiakos in basketball and the players utilised today should become the backbone of the team for years to come.

The game itself started through Mantzaris, Spanoulis, Keselj, Antic and Dorsey and although we initially fell behind in the quarter, we stabilised and took the lead. Spanoulis and Dorsey were the two main components of this early lead and along with Printezis ensured that we won the first period by 24 points to 20.

The second quarter saw us start in the best way  with us going 10 points clear and keeping this score differential for a few minutes before going even further and pushing 12 points in front. Once we had reached 12 points clear we kept this points difference all the way until the halftime buzzer.

The second half saw us relax a little and let the Lagoi back into the match (48-43) but we managed to recover through Sloukas and then keep an eight point differential for a few minutes. This was then followed by Printezis, Spanoulis and Papanikolaou getting some important baskets which were not answered. The last shot of the quarter was done by Spanoulis to make the score 14 points in front and lead 70-56 in preparation for the final push.

The fourth and final quarter begins and everything which could have gone wrong, does do. We make five fouls in just over a minute and Hynes is removed. We recover through Spanoulis, but the lead is cut to 9 points and we have made several mistakes during the quarter. At this stage though Printezis, Spanoulis and Papanikolaou manage to score enough points to finish the game and with it, finish the A1 championship and win the title.

The scores were :-

1st Quarter : Olympiakos 24-20 Poutanas Gios
2nd Quarter : Olympiakos 48-36 Poutanas Gios
3rd Quarter : Olympiakos 70-56 Poutanas Gios
4th Quarter : Olympiakos 82-76 Poutanas Gios

A superb Olympiakos performance ensured a win in the SEF Stadium, beating the Vazelos 84-72 and making the finals series 2-1 in the finals of the A1 championship. Now our reds will face the Lagoi one final time in the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday and will need to break their stronghold to win the finals.

Olympiakos started with the usual five - Mantzaris, Spanoulis, Keselj, Antic and Dorsey and soon racked up a decent home advantage. Keselj started off the scoring and the Serbian was red-hot at the start of the game and quickly notched up a five point lead. Spanoulis made it 7-0 before Keselj increased the score further (9-3). As the period went on Antic made it 14-6 before the Vazelos made five points of their own. Printezis and Dorsey worked hard in the first period and took the score from 22-11 to 27-15, to 29-18 at the end of the quarter.
The second quarter saw Hynes and Printezis increase the lead to 14 then onto 17 points in our favour (41-24). The Vazelos were completely silenced by this point and apart from Baptiste seemed to have given up. We maintained the lead at 17 or 18 points throughout the remainder of the half (jumping as high as 20 points on one occasion) and led 53-35 at the break.

The same classic five lineup started off the second half of the game but we started to lose some easy baskets and made mistakes in our play. Our defence started to look rather ugly and our lead slipped from 18 points to 12 points. Baptiste was again the playmaker for the Lagoi and it was annoying that we could not mark him effectively during this period.
However in the final quarter we went up to a twenty point lead again then to 23 points (78-55). Perhaps with the feeling that the game had been already won, we let our performance slip and the result was the Poutanas Gios making a comeback. We relaxed a little too much and let the collossal advantage that we had slide away. We ended the game 12 points in front, still a good scoreline but not as good as it should have been.

1st Quarter : Olympiakos 29-18 Poutanas Gios
2nd Quarter : Olympiakos 53-35 Poutanas Gios
3rd Quarter : Olympiakos 69-51 Poutanas Gios
4th Quarter : Olympiakos 84-72 Poutanas Gios

Olympiakos (Ivkovic): Hynes 6, Lo 9, Antic 7, Spanoulis 15, Dorsey 2, Keselj 10, Gecevicius 6, Printezis 16, Papanikolaou 6, Mantzaris 5, Sloukas 2.

We played our first match of the A1 finals tonight and beat the Vazeloi by 84 points to 78 to open the final scoring to 1-0. The SEF arena was packed tonight as the team came onto the court although we started the first quarter of the match badly. Unfortunately Antic, Kalathis and Spanoulis made several mistakes in the opening 10 minutes, but to counter that we made some good plays at times and only trailed the Lagoi by 5 points at the end of the quarter.
The second quarter was better for us and our play improved a lot during this period. All of the plays put in a better performance with the result that we first tied and then overtook the Vazeloi. Printezis and Hines performing particularly well during the quarter and leading to an 8 point advantage at the half time break.
After the half time break we continued our play but also made a number of mistakes. However we played well enough to keep a five point lead which we maintained over the final quarter too.

The scores in the game were :-

1st Quarter : Olympiakos 15-20 Poutanas Gios
2nd Quarter : Olympiakos 41-33 Poutanas Gios
3rd Quarter : Olympiakos 58-52 Poutanas Gios
4th Quarter : Olympiakos 84-78 Poutanas Gios

Olympiakos : Hines 13, Antic 9, Spanoulis 9, Dorsey 3, Keselj 2, Papadopoulos, Gecevicius 11, Printezis 18, Papanikolaou 16, Mantzaris 2, Sloukas 1, Katsivelis

We grabbed an easy win today after beating the Voulgaroi 81 points to 53 in the first play off match of the A1 Basket season. If we win again on visiting Salonika, we will advance to the semi-final play-offs where we will face either Panionios or Rethymnon. Antic was the top scorer in the game with 18 points whilst the next best scores can from Spanoulis with 12 points and then Printezis with 10.

The first quarter started off well enough for us with us building up a lead of 14 points without any reply at all from the opposition. We continued with a top performance and took at 28 point lead at the end of the first quarter.
Our good play continued in the second quarter with Antic leading the attack. The Voulgaroi fought back in this quarter after we had gone 33 points ahead and reduced our lead to 26 points by the end of the first half. As the team left the arena, they were applauded for their efforts.

The third quarter had an even bigger performance from our team and we went on the offensive once again. At one stage we went forty points in front but finally finished with a 35 point lead instead. We had changed some of the roster around to give time to the other players on the team.

The last ten minutes were a bit of a mess for us. We made several errors and our attacks broke down too often. This allowed our opposition to get back into the match and reduce their defecit although we easily won the game.

Olympiakos 81-53 Voulgaroi
1st Quarter : Olympiakos 34-6 Voulgaroi
2nd Quarter : Olympiakos 57-21 Voulgaroi
3rd Quarter : Olympiakos 72-37 Voulgaroi
4th Quarter : Olympiakos 81-53 Voulgaroi

Olympiakos : Sloukas 5, Spanoulis 12, Antic 18, Hines 4, Dorsey 6, Printezis 10, Mantzaris 4, Keselj 4, Low 4, Papanikolaou 7, Gecevicius 3, Vasilopoulos 4