European Basketball Team

02/06/08

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04/04/08

Olympiakos - Real Madrid: After the game report

Eurobasket.com's Greek section was present at the game between Olympiakos and Real Madrid and hereby comes the report after the game:

From the players, first of the following three, Arvydas Macijauskas (192-G-80) stated, after his impressing come-back (though having played few minutes but having scored three precious points), that he felt ready to play for two weeks already. When team coach ordered him to come on the floor, he felt really confident, especially in these crucial seconds when he always has trust to himself. Finally, he mentioned that 'tonight, we knocked out the team whose city will host the Final-4. Everybody understands how important this is'.

Then Ioannis Bourousis (212-C-83, agency: FCM) came out of the lockers to point out that after starting the Top-16 with two straight losses, nobody believed that Olympiakos could make it to the quarterfinals. But, with hard work and patience, the team made it, with everybody putting himself in the service of the team. Reds' fans built a great atmosphere and they really offered a big-time support. 'The games against CSKA will be a different story. I think we are the outsiders in the series', he ended.

Panagotis Vasilopoulos (202-F-84, agency: FCM), probably the MVP of the game, was the last Red player to speak with stressing on happiness that the team made it to the quarterfinals. 'The two away wins we made were the key to our success. These two road wins changed our morale and made us believe that we can make it. Tonight, we managed to keep our concentration for all the 40 minutes and prevent Real Madrid from keeping us out of our rhythm. I think we proved we wanted it more. When Arvydas Macijauskas scored the basket-plus-foul, I said to him: 'Welcome back'. He really offers much help to the team and as soon as Sofocles Schortsianitis (206-C-85) return to the team, we will become even stronger. It's too early to speak about the games against CSKA. I know they are improving too, as Smodis came back. We will see'.

For Real players, Felipe Reyes (203-F/C-80) admitted that they knew it was tough to come at Olympiacos's home court and win. The team didn't play its worst game, but not its best either; that was not enough to qualify to the quarterfinals. 'We managed to stay always close and went ahead at the third period. However, we didn't believe in the victory as much as Olympiacos did', he mentioned. On the other side, Lazaros Papadopoulos (210-C-80) pointed on that Real didn't have a good game tonight. 'We had the chance, but it simply didn't happen. Olympiacos managed to hold the score at a low level and had better decision making on offense. Life is not over, though. That's sports and basketball. Both teams cannot win. We sould focus on the Spanish League now, where three difficult games follow. I hope Olympiacos will travel to Madrid for the Final Four'.

At the press conference, coach Joan Plaza gave his congratulations to Olympiacos, although he thought it wasn't better overall, but it was better at particular moments of the game. 'Our opponents were also lucky in some cases, such us the triple off the glass that Bouroussis made; that proved to be a critical moment. Apart from that, I am happy and proud for my players. We learned much from this Euroleague season. We will keep on developing as a team. Experience is something we gained from the season in the Euroleague. I wish good luck to Olympiacos', he stated.

On the other side, Olympiakos' coach, Panagiotis Giannakis , among other things, he mentioned that the team started the Top-16 with some crucial mistakes against Maccabi at home. 'However, we rolled on for some good away wins. All the team believes in its players and in the efforts we give both in the practice and in the game. We will now try to knock out CSKA, a team that is built to win it all the way. We should just walk and don't fly in the sky because of this win and our general qualification during the last month. We still need to be patient and time will be on our side', he ended, without forgetting giving honour to Reds' funs for their big help.

28/03/08

Olympiakos qualified in Euroleagues quarterfinals after winning Real 72-63!

It is now a fact! Greek Basketball will have at least one representative as Olympiakos just kicked out of Euroleague the host team of Final Four, Real Madrid!
Olympiacos is headed to the Quarterfinal Playoffs! Panagiotis Giannakis Reds downed Real Madrid 72-63 at the end of an intense battle in front of a sold-out crowd at the Peace and Friendship Stadium to wrap up second place in Group F and a playoff match up with last season's runner-up, CSKA Moscow. In a game that was closer than the final score would indicate, Arvydas Macijauskas (192-G-80) returned from injury to join Ioannis Bourousis (212-C-83) and Roderick Blakney (181-G-76, college: S.Carolina St.) in scoring crucial fourth-quarter points as Olympiacos held off Madrid and eliminated the powerful team that was expected to compete for the title at the Final Four in its own city in May. Panagotis Vasilopoulos (202-F-84) led the Reds with 14 points and 6 rebounds, Milos Teodosic (196-G-87) added 12 and the Top 16's top scorer Lynn Greer and Qyntel Woods (204-F/G-81, college: N.Mississippi JC) netted 9 apiece. Raul Lopez led Madrid with 16; Axel scored 12 and Louis Bullock 10.
Panagiotis Giannakis prove once more how big Coach he is as he turned Gershon's team from a loosing site to a victorious site in just 1.5 months!!

It was an extraordinary night for Olympiacos fans from the beginning as the heroes from the Olympiacos team that won the 1997 Euroleague title, Giorgos Siagalas, Panagiotis Fassoulas, Milan Tomic and Coach Dusan Ivkovic were honored by Euroleague Basketball before the tip-off

18/03/08

Dukes beat Wels

Klosterneuburg Dukes - WBC Wels 89:82 (43:37)

The Dukes took their last chance to stay in the fight for the 6th spot with his win against Wels. The Dukes led already by 20 points in the last quarter, but Wels came to a lot of easy points with their zone press, anyway its wasnt enough to turn the game around again.

Dukes: Melvin Creddle (186-G-82, college: Mount Olive) 17, Watson 17, Wright 15, Martin 14+13 rebounds+6 blocks, Diwald 14
Wels: Elijah Palmer (201-F-81, agency: Court Side, college: Duquesne) 22+12 rebounds, Klette 17, Archibald 12, Anderson 11

14/03/08

Partizan Igokea downed strong Montepaschi in Belgrade 78-75 !

Partizan Igokea - Montepaschi Siena 78-75

Reining Serbian and Adriatic league champion grabbed the second consecutive win in Euroleague TOP 16 making a huge step forward to their dream - Euroleague quarterfinals. They downed, until last night unbeatable, Montepaschi Siena, who plays this season in amazing shape. Like always, Partizan had unbelievable support from their fans. Again there was almost 7.000 people in hall Pionir.

Partizan opened the game a bit better and mostly owing to Palacio made 14-6 in 8th minute. Very quickly, the visitors tied the score to 21-21 after successful fast break by Ilievski. After 10-0 run, Montepaschi made the bigger lead in 28th minute setting the score to 41-52. Partizan, through center Pekovic, came back into the game at the beginning of the last period 54-52. In the thriller finish, Montepaschi had a chance to leave the Belgrade celebrating. Namely, Partizan had a lead 76-75 with 13 seconds remaining. After Vujosevic's time out Novica Velickovic (205-F-86) made a mistake throwing the ball in from the side line after what he fouled Shaun Stonerook (203-F/C-77, college: Ohio) who missed two crucial FTs. At the Partizan's last possession Dusan Kecman (197-G/F-77, agency: Beo Basket) drained it twice for the final score 78-75 and indescribable joy for the black and white fans. Interesting is that Partizan made the first shot from behind the arc in 34th minute of the game.

USA PG Milton Palacio (190-G-78, college: Colorado St.) paced the winners adding 26 points and 4 rebounds. Partizan's first star Nikola Pekovic (210-C-86, agency: Beo Basket) followed him with 16 points and 7 rebounds. On the other side, strong Italian team got 16 points and 5 rebounds from Benjamin Eze (207-C/F-81, college: S.Idaho JC) and 16 points and 4 assists from Terrell McIntyre (175-G-77, college: Clemson).

After the game Partizan's head coach Dusko Vujosevic said that he is very happy with performance of his team and that this fantastic victory came from the players and also their great fans. He stated that the key of the Partizan's win was the crucial 3-pointer from Velickovic at the end and very good performance by Palacio.

Siena's head coach Simone Pianigiani wasn't unsatisfied last night. He said his team played a good game last night with pride, because they had a lot of injury problems with McIntyre and Lavrinovic. Siena still has a nice chance to finish on top of group D.

In order to reach the Euroleague quarterfinals Partizan will most probably have to beat the Greek giant PAO, who celebrated against Serbian team three times this season in extremely dramatic finishes.

07/03/08

Landstede Basketball On A Roll, Wins Over Matrixx Magixx

The team of Landstede Basketball head coach Herman van den Belt is playing excellent basketball lately, are a really hungry team now.

Saturday night in the ZBC-hal, thanks to a good start and solid leadership from leading scorer Darnell Wilson (198-F-85, college: Canisius), Landstede wins its 3rd in a row and 6 of last 8, winning over Matrixx Magixx by the score of 82-73. Wilson put on his hard hat and took his lunch pail, scoring a season-high 32 pts., with 12 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists. Wilson got good help from Robby Bostain (191-G/F-84, agency: Sports Plus International, college: Furman), who added 17 pts. and 5 assists, and Gerad Punch (193-G/F, college: Furman), who added 18 pts. with 4 three-pointers. Antoine Jordan (195-G-83, college: Siena) led Matrixx with 15 pts. Landstede also forced 27 Matrixx turnovers. With the win, Landstede continues its ascent in the FEB standings with a 12-17 record and a half-game from Upstairs Weert in the FEB standings.

29/02/08

Leaders achieve easy wins

Latest games in Russian Superleague brought the next wins for the leaders of the standings.

The defending champion CSKA smashed Enisey 113:60. Matjaz Smodis (205-F-79) and Nikos Zisis (195-G-83) top-scored for the winners with 17 points apiece. Worrik netted 18 points in the losing effort. CSKA started with 33:19 and won all the other quarters. The favorite improved to 17-1 in the standings, while Enisey is 2-16.

Dynamo Moscow did not have any difficulties against Samara 103:75. The hosts smashed the opponent in the first three quarters and then did not worry about the last. Javtokas led the winners with 18 points to 14-5 record. Monia Sergey produced 16, while Henry Domercant (192-G-80, college: E.Illinois) netted 14. Evgeni Voronov (192-G-86) Evgeniy chipped in 14 points in defeat.

Triumph beat Spartak Sb 103:65 as Fedor Likholitov (210-C-80, college: Va Commonwealth) and Zamansky Igor top-cored with 13 points each. Sims had a good game for the visitors nailing 26 points.

Unics overcame Lokomotiv Rostov on a road 59:76. A 8:23 in the third quarter was the decisive in the game. Kirksay Tarik led the way with 14 points as Unics improved to 12-6.

Just an hour ago Lokomotiv Novosibirsk edged University 78:75.

European Basketball Team

02/06/08

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