2007-08Top 16Round 1
February 14, 2008 CET: 20:45
Local time: 21:45 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv racked up an all-important 67-75 victory against Olympiacos

Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv shook off ongoing injury problems to keep its momentum intact with a solid 67-75 road win over Olympiacos in Pireaus, Greece to open Top 16, Group F for both teams. Maccabi and Real Madrid are tied 1-0 atop the group now, while Olympiacos joins Zalgiris at 0-1. A scoring blast after halftime established Maccabi's first double-digit lead of the night, and the guests nursed that margin all the way to the victory. Maccabi won despite missing all-Euroleague center Nikola Vujcic once again and seeing another frontcourt starter, Marcus Fizer, leave the game after 8 minutes due to a knee injury. Terence Morris, who was the Euroleague's January MVP, paced Maccabi with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. Yotam Halperin matched his scoring and dished 6 assists besides. Esteban Batista added 12 points of the bench for the winners. Olympiacos relied on 26 points from Lynn Greer, who also dished 5 assists. Marc Jackson added 14 points for the Reds while Loukas Mavrokefalides pulled 11 rebounds. Olympiacos suffered from 8-for-30 three-point shooting (26.6%)

Panagiotis Giannakis was welcomed by the home crowd in his Euroleague debut on the Olympiacos bench before the tip-off. Cummings stole the ball and run the floor for the game's first basket. Good ball movement resulted to a Greer' triple, 3-2. Halperin connected for 5 straight points, but Jackson found consecutive baskets for the hosts, too, as the scoreboard stood now at 7-7. Olympiacos chose to execute from the perimeter to lose four three-pointers in the row; Maccabi, on the other side, feed the ball inside and Fizer led the guests to 7-11. It was time for Greer to step up in order to nail a layup and a triple to put Olympiacos in front at 12-11. Fizer had to leave the court in the eighth minute due to a knee injury. As a result, Maccabi had trouble defending inside and Olympiacos managed to build a 17-13 difference. However, the visitors reacted with Halperin and Alex Garcia to trim the difference to 17-16 after one quarter.

Olympiacos used some good team defense to make Maccabi struggle in the eraly second quarter, but the Reds couldn't take much advantage as they kept missing three-pointers. Halperin broke Maccabi's three-minute scoring silence with a good basket-plus-free throw and when he fed Batista for a nice basket, the guests were 20-19 ahead. Both teams were suddenly finding offensive solutions. Kostas Vassiliadis came off the bench to fire Olympiacos into the lead again on a triple at 24-23. Maccabi ran the open floor with Batista and Garcia, while Olympiacos was creating good opportunities on set offense to stay up by 28-27. Morris dunked the ball on an offensive board to offer the game's most impressive play yet and set the halftime scoreboard at 30-29.

A nice pick-and-roll by Halperin to Batista resulted in an easy layup, and then when Cummings chipped in a triple, Maccabi was ahead 30-34 shortly after the break. Vassiliadis answered back with a corner three-pointer, but Maccabi had the momentum now. Batista, Morris and David Bluthental filled a 0-7 run that put the guess ahead 33-41 and silenced the crowd. After Jackson found room in the paint, big men Morris and Ioannis Bouroussis exchanged triples at 38-44. Olympiacos was encountering huge trouble in setting up its offense as Maccabi had strengthened its defense and the Reds were obliged to execute under big pressure. Instead, Halperin drove in the traffic for a double-digit difference at 40-50. Milos Teodosic nailed a triple in response for Olympiacos, but soon Bluthenthal answered back in the same way to make it 43-53. Garcia nailed another three-pointer for Maccabi for a 43-56 advantage before Greer sank the fourth consecutive triple between the teams in just 2 minutes. Maccabi finished a magnificent third quarter having scored as many points as they had did in the previous two, 29, to hold a 46-58 lead after 30 minutes.

The Reds forced Maccabi to go scoreless for the first 3 minutes, 30 seconds of the final quarter while Mavrokefalidis and Greer built a 6-0 run to get Olympiacos within 52-58. Maccabi reacted, though, with three-pointers from Garcia and Halperin at 64-55. Lukas Mavrokefalidis cut to the rim for a basket, but Morris copied him and then nailed the most crucial triple so far, vaulting Maccabi's lead to 58-69 with 3 minutes remaining. After an Olympiacos timeout, Jackson finished assists from Woods and Greer to bring Olympiacos closer at 62-69. After Morris found a basket for Maccabi, Greer drew fouls and found 5 easy points at the free-throw line for a 67-71 score with 46 seconds still to go. Olympiacos pressed full-court, but Maccabi kept its nerve and based on good passing found an easy layup by Halperin at 67-73. Garcia made a steal then and sealed Maccabi's big road win over Olympiacos to start the Top 16.

Thursday, February 14, 2008
EStelios Kyriakoglou, Athens
No results found.
Referees: MITJANA, JUAN CARLOS; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; SAHIN, TOLGA
Attendance: 6000
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos17131621
Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv16132917
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos17304667
Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv16295875
Olympiacos
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 BLAKNEY, RODERICK 15:55   0/2 0/2     1 1 1 2 1     2   -3
5 PAPAMAKARIOS, MANOLIS 8:05     0/1                   2 1 -2
6 WOODS, QYNTEL 22:24   0/3 0/4     2 2 4   2     2   -5
8 SEIBUTIS, RENALDAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 BOUROUSIS, IOANNIS 19:42 3 0/1 1/2     8 8 1 1   1     1 13
11 GREER, LYNN 34:02 26 5/7 3/8 7/8   2 2 5 1 1   1 3 10 31
12 MAVROKEFALIDIS, LOUKAS 18:15 5 2/7   1/2 7 4 11   1 1   1 1 2 10
13 VASILOPOULOS, PANAGIOTIS 21:37 5 1/2 1/4   1 1 2 1 2 2     1 2 5
14 VASILEIADIS, KOSTAS 18:14 8 1/1 2/5   1 1 2     1     1   5
16 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 2:22                   1         -1
18 TEODOSIC, MILOS 13:58 6 0/1 1/3 3/3       2         4 3 4
25 JACKSON, MARC 25:26 14 6/10 0/1 2/2   1 1 1   5     1 2 7
Team             4 4               4
Totals 200:00 67 15/34 8/30 13/15 9 24 33 15 7 14 1 2 17 21 68
        44.1% 26.7% 86.7%
Head coach: GIANNAKIS, PANAGIOTIS
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
Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 BYNUM, WILL 20:20 5 0/2 1/2 2/2   1 1 1   2     2 6 6
5 FIZER, MARCUS 8:37 2 1/3 0/1   1 1 2     2     1 1 -1
6 SHARP, DERRICK 2:15 2     2/2                     2
7 VUJCIC, NIKOLA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 ELIYAHU, LIOR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 MORRIS, TERENCE 38:42 16 5/8 2/3   3 8 11 3   2 1   4 1 22
11 CASSPI, OMRI 4:56   0/1       2 2     1          
12 GARCIA, ALEX 19:36 9 1/1 2/2 1/2   2 2 2 1 1     4 4 12
13 BLU, DAVID 21:10 6 1/2 1/3 1/1   2 2 2   3       1 5
14 CUMMINGS, VONTEEGO 17:46 7 2/3 1/1         2 2 1     4   5
15 BATISTA, ESTEBAN 29:19 12 5/11   2/2   3 3 2 2 3   1 3 1 7
21 HALPERIN, YOTAM 37:19 16 5/6 2/5 0/1   4 4 6 1 2 1   3 3 21
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 75 20/37 9/17 8/10 5 25 30 18 6 17 2 1 21 17 82
        54.1% 52.9% 80%
Head coach: SHERF, ZVI

Head Coaches

GIANNAKIS, PANAGIOTIS
Olympiacos
"We didn't start the way we wanted. I think we controlled the game tempo till halftime, but Maccabi took advantage of our bad play during the third period to build an important margin after finding easy baskets. We were impatient during that time; patience will be the key in our team. We have to show patience during the whole game, no matter what the fans may want. We cannot achieve everything in a day's time; we need to work hard physically and mentally. Our goal is to create a team that wins every game under any circumstances. I am just asking for patience; patience was what I asked for when we were winning, patience I am asking now, too. Every game is important, but we shouldn't become nervous, because that results in mistakes."
SHERF, ZVI
Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv
"I am always happy to return in Greece. The change in Olympiacos' coach position made our scouting job hard, as we barely knew what to expect. Blackney and Woods hadn't played against Aris and it was really difficult for us to prepare the game. Fizer's injury came as a shock for us. We had the worst shooting percentage of the whole season during the second period and we decided by halftime to change our tactics. We chose to be quicker and run the floor and tried to hit Olympiacos in its weaknesses. When we build a margin, Olympiacos had the pressure. I am sure they will play better in Tel Aviv. I have great respect for Panagiotis Giannakis. I had coached him once, he is a good friend of mine and a great coach. This is an important win for us. We travel back to Tel Aviv with a lot of confidence, but we are waiting to find out more about our injuries."

Players

VASILOPOULOS, PANAGIOTIS
Olympiacos
"Unfortunately, we didn't manage to bring on court the work we have done during practices these last days. We are building something new now and we will probably need some time to perform that on the floor. We are still in the building process considering that the coach changed and we now have to adjust to the new philosophy. Tonight, we couldn't play according to the plan, but I hope that we will soon be able to do so. We let Maccabi get too many layups and lost the game at the end. We will practice hard and look forward to the next games."
MORRIS, TERENCE
Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv
"Both teams have changed coaches recently and both have changed their game orientation. We knew that Olympiacos will be focusing more on defense. We executed well from the perimeter and had good ball movement, while our defense was very good during the whole game. Olympiacos has a tough team and it's always very hard to win in Greece. We are very happy to start the second round with such a big road win."
No results found.