SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It is a very important win because the first game always brings a lot of suspense and it is more difficult for the home team to win it. We also had one reason to say this; we played in our home court, but in Crete. Although Olympiacos fans and all basketball people on the island helped us, it is not our natural home court. I want to thank and congratulate all the fans that came here and supported us. It is good that we gave them back the satisfaction that we won the game for them. I want to thank everybody who is responsible for the organization of this game in Crete. We thank all of them for the great hospitality. About the game, I think we started a little nervous in the first four, five minutes but after that, we brought the game to our standards, controlled the game from our defense and started to play as a team, all together, on offense. Slowly, we got the lead during the first half, especially in the second period, when it reached double digits. I believe that, in the end, we had the control of the game in the second half. Baskonia tried to come back at the end but we didn't have any problems, insisting on our defensive plan and staying together, we scored some easy points on offense out of great organization between the players. I think the final score shows how the game went. I want to congratulate the players for this good win. We have a big way to go, but have to keep improving our game."