Galery

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With a 73-72 finished the match, part of the A1 play-offs between basketball teams of Olympiakos and Marousi, played on Agios Thomas arena in Athens. With this result from last night the white-reds led with 2-0 in the semi-finals. 

Despite their victory, the guests had a difficult game with the team of Marousi. The hosts managed to have a strong defence at home and their game resembled nothing of the previous meeting, when they lost with 30 points. 

Olympiakos started the match with a light pace without pressure. The hosts were the ones who won the first lead with 5-0. Thanks Shortsanitis and Kleyza the guests make up the loss and evened the score, which at the end of the first quarter was 19-19. Characteristic of the beginning of the meeting was the problem that Olympiakos had with defence. The team of Marousi easily managed to find a way to the basket and score points. In the second quarter, Olympiakos had problem with their attack. There were even times when they could not even score a point. Marousi lead with 24-19. Shortsanitis was the one who helped the team get back on its feet. He brought the score to 25-28. However, the bad defence of the white-reds did not help in blocking the attacks of Marousi. So at the end of the second quarter Keys and Kaymakoglou increased the score difference even more and during the 20^th minute the result was 41-32 ... 

The third quarter started poorly for Olympiakos once again. This was the moment when Marousi gained advantage of 12 points. This score difference acted as a cold shower for the guests. They proceeded to a counterattack. The points scored by Teodosich and the more organized game helped Olympiakos to catch up and overtake the hosts. Unfortunately, not until the end ... The third quarter ended with even score again (51-51) and with this the tension on the court rose enormously. During the final quarter Olympiakos put all its energy into attack. It managed to steal the ball from Marousi, had a faster attack and it led with 60-55. Followed were counterattacks by Keys, who was able to regain the lost position of his team. The hosts took the lead again with 69-63... 

At the end of the match the game took a totally dramatic twist. From a result of 71-72 seconds before the end of the match, Keys missed a 3 points shot and Teodosich failed to score as well. Score by Papaloukas saved the result and brought the final score to 73-72 for the guests.