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Emanuela Karastoyanova

The second game of the basketball team of Olympiakos with the Polish team Asseco Prokom Gdynia ended with a final score of 90:73 in favor of the white and red team. The qualification game for the quarter finals was played on the SEF stadium in Athens before the eyes of thousands of enthusiastic fans. The victory from this evening took the white and red team very close their qualification for the quarter finals – now they only need one victory in order for their European dream to come true.

The game started with points scored by the hosts. The good coordination and the result oriented game helped the white and red team to take the lead very fast by scoring a lead of almost 20 points. They managed on time to find their rhythm in the game and in the middle of the first half the result was impressive – 42:25. The lead which Olympiakos accumulated so fast scared the guests. After the second period they pulled themselves together and got started on the uneasy task to even the score. Even though it was very difficult they managed to partially make up for the loss. In this way the first half ended with a final result of 46:38.

The second half started with a new strong offensive on the part of the guests. Like this the difference in the score gradually started to disappear and at the end of the first ten minutes Asseco Prokom reached their goal and evened the score to 49:49. This turning point scared the hosts and they started a new series of attacks. In the second ten minutes they managed to take the lead even though by little (51:49). Several times the Polish team appeared to be very close to the hosts, however as a whole Olympiakos preserved the trend of dominating on the field until the end of the game. Of course its task was made easier by the support of the fans who had filled the hall and couldn’t think even for a moment that their favorite team could lose.

A huge contribution for the victory of the hosts this evening had the players Theodoros Papaloukas, Linas Kleiza and Scoonie Penn. Their points were often very spectacular and with great technique, and they were the ones to change the score and help the team to take the lead. This is how during the third period the score reached 71:60. For the game this evening also contributed Josh Childress and Nikola Vujcic.

Besides with their strong offense Olympiakos could also be proud by their perfect defense. The players were easily managing to take the ball from the Polish team, which was almost entering the basket. For this fact the fans who were on the field were repaying with powerful and joyful cheering.

Olympiakos (Panagiotis Giannakis): Papaloukas, Penn, Childress, Vujcic, Vasilopoulos, Bourousis, Halperin, Kleiza, Mavrokefalides, Beverley, Teodosic, Schortsanitis

Asseco Prokom – Gdynia (Tomas Pacesas): Seweryn, Harrington, Logan, Jagla, Lapeta, Zamojski, Szczotka, Varda, Woods, Burrell, Ewing, Hrycaniuk