2001-02Regular SeasonRound 10
January 09, 2002 CET: 00:00
Local time: 00:00 ANDREAS PAPANDREU
Barcelona overpowered Peristeri in the only Group B game on Wednesday. Barcelona continued to show their impressive offense and why they are the leading scorers in their group with a 72-101 victory. Ademola Okulaja set the pace for the winners, but by the early second half, the visitors' leads surpassed 25 points and the scoring show took precedent over an outcome that was already accepted. The win moved Barcelona into a potential tie for first place with a record of 7-3, depending on the outcome of tomorrow night's games. In an incredibly tight battle for positioning to make the Top 16, four teams in Group B are tied with a record of 6-3. Peristeri dropped to 2-8 with the loss and continues to struggle against the stronger teams in their group.

Unstoppable by any defense Peristeri put on him, Ademola Okulaja led Barcelona from the very first moment of the game. The German power forward scored 11 of the first 19 points of the visitors, good enough to give the Spanish side the early edge. After six minutes, Barcelona was already nine points ahead, 7-16. Then Peristeri, which played without Michael Andersen and Alexis Papadatos - both injured - cut the margin to four, at 12-16, but the superiority of Barcelona in every level of the game was clear. Juan Carlos Navarro hit a three-pointer to open again the gap again to 14-22, and after the third personal foul on Manolis Papamakarios, Barcelona pushed the lead to double-digits at 16-26. One more Peristeri bucket ended the quarter at 18-26.

Even though Okulaja didn't score a single points during the second quarter, Barcelona stayed the boss of the game. Sarunas Jasikevicius hit two consecutive three-pointers to push the lead back up past 10, at 24-36, halfway through the period. Adam Wojcik tried to help Peristeri in recovering, but no chance. With 7 for 15 three point shots and only five turnovers Barcelona had always the control of the game,against a team which shot 1 for 7 from the three point line and has already committed 12 turnovers. So, despite the big gap under the boards, as Peristeri grabbed double rebounds (20 against 10) than Barcelona, the host team concluded the first half with a 10 points lead, 36-46. Okulaja was the best scorer of his team with 11 points, followed by Jasikevicius (6), Efthimis Rentzias (5) and Juan Navarro (5). Wojcik led Peristeri, with 13 points, Kostas Tsartsaris added 6 and Byron Dinkins 5.

The third quarter was nothing but show for Barcelona. With a great defense, an outstanding passing game to find any time the open man, the usual fastbreaks and a lot of alternatives on offense, the Spanish team just glided away from Peristeri. Okulaja scored 10 fast and easy points, Navarro hit four three-pointers, Rodrigo De la Fuente and Efthimios Rentzias joined the fun to give Barcelona a 27-point lead at the end of the third period (45-72). Peristeri seemed unable to react against a really unstoppable team.

Nothing changed in the last quarter, as Barcelona continued to deliver showtime. Peristeri captain Manolis Papamakarios tried to push his team, just for honor, and he managed to score 16 points in 10 minutes, but his effort had no result. From the other side, Arturas Karnisovas came up big, scoring 11 points in the last quarter and became one among the four players of Barcelona with double figures. After 39 minutes of playing, the margin opened to 38 points (61-99) and nine seconds before the end of the game Alain Digbeu gave his team the right to surpass 100 points.
Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Vassilis Skountis, Athens
No results found.
Referees: COLUCCI, GENARO; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; CHIARI, ROBERTO
Attendance: 2000
By Quarter1234
Peristeri1818927
FC Barcelona26202629
End of Quarter1234
Peristeri18364572
FC Barcelona264672101
Peristeri
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 DINKINS, BYRON 20:56 10 2/4 2/3         1   4     1   3
5 PAPAMAKARIOS, MANOLIS 21:41 18 1/1 3/5 7/7   3 3 1 1 2 1   4 7 23
7 PELEKANOS, MICHALIS 16:43 4 2/2 0/2   1 3 4 1   1 1   2 1 6
8 AGRON, XIARCHOS 12:27 4 2/2     2 1 3   1 2     5 1 2
9 PANTAZOPOULOS, GIORGOS 15:32 3 0/2 1/3           1 2     3 1 -4
10 WOJCIK, ADAM 28:39 15 6/11 0/3 3/4   1 1 1   2 1 1 2 3 7
11 TSARTSARIS, KOSTAS 25:58 6 2/4   2/2   7 7 1 1 2     2 2 11
12 KUHEL, ALEXANDER 9:46   0/1       1 1     1       1  
15 EFTHIMIOU, THANASIS 29:08 6 3/6 0/2   3 3 6 2   2 2   3   6
16 STAMOPOULOS, IOANNIS 5:10 3 0/1 1/1           1     1 2    
17 MITROPOULOS, IOANNIS 14:00 3   1/3     1 1   2 1     2   1
Team             2 2               2
Totals 200:00 72 18/34 8/22 12/13 6 22 28 7 7 19 5 2 26 16 57
        52.9% 36.4% 92.3%
Head coach: PEDOULAKIS, ARGYRIS
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
FC Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 RODRIGUEZ, NACHO 23:12 5 1/2 0/3 3/3 1 1 2 5         1 7 14
6 ALZAMORA, ALFONS 19:22 3 0/2   3/4 1 1 2 1   2   1 2 3 1
7 DE LA FUENTE, RODRIGO 23:40 10 3/4 0/1 4/4 1 6 7 1 2         2 20
8 EKONOMOU, NIKOLAOS 15:09 6   2/3     2 2     1     2   4
9 OKULAJA, ADEMOLA 24:51 21 5/6 2/2 5/8   2 2 2   1       5 25
10 DIGBEU, ALAIN 14:30 7 2/2   3/3   2 2 1   1 1   2 3 11
11 NAVARRO, JUAN CARLOS 25:47 16 2/5 4/5     3 3 3 2           20
12 DUENAS, ROBERTO 12:17 5 2/4   1/1 3 1 4 1   1   1 4 1 3
13 JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS 13:08 8 0/2 2/4 2/2       1 3 4   1 4 3 2
14 RENTZIAS, EFTHYMIOS 8:21 7 2/3 1/1   1   1   1 1 1       8
19 KARNISOVAS, ARTURAS 19:43 13 3/8 2/5 1/1 1 3 4   2 1   2 1 2 9
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 101 20/38 13/24 22/26 9 23 32 15 10 12 2 5 16 26 120
        52.6% 54.2% 84.6%
Head coach: GARCIA RENESES, AITO
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

PEDOULAKIS, ARGYRIS
Peristeri
"I think that our biggest problem was the lack of concentration. Maybe it is natural, since we don¿t have any goals left in the Euroleague. Tonight we made 26 turnovers. We had huge problems with Barcelona's pick-n-rolls. That's why Barcelona had so many three-point shots. In the second half, when we tried to rest Kostas Tsartsaris, we totally collapsed, but I would say that we had to try harder not to lose by 30 points at home."
GARCIA RENESES, AITO
FC Barcelona
"It was a very important win for us, because we managed to stay close to the top of Group B. After a close first half, we tried to play high-intensity defense and have speed in our offensive game. I think we made it, and that¿s why we took the victory against a team that beat us at home. I don¿t agree that the game was easy for us. It was a difficult game, that became easy for us only in the last minutes."

Players

PAPAMAKARIOS, MANOLIS
Peristeri
"With 26 turnovers, you cannot ever beat Barcelona. They punished all our turnovers with fastbreaks. They played great defense and I think that was a good lesson for us to be concentrated in the next domestic games. We have to be realistic though. We are not playing good basketball and we have to improve our defense and reduce the turnovers."
OKULAJA, ADEMOLA
FC Barcelona
"Peristeri played really well in the first half. Byron Dinkins hit some incredible shots and they beat us under the boards, as they grabbed 10 more rebounds than we did. We tried to change the situation in the second half, playing great team defense and stopping their top guns. We controlled the rebounds and we accomplished a very important win that keeps us alive to hunt the first place of Group B."
No results found.