2012-13Final FourSEMIFINAL A
CSKA Moscow 52
Olympiacos Piraeus 69
May 10, 2013 CET: 18:00
Local time: 17:00 O2 ARENA

Olympiacos trounces CSKA, eyes repeat!

Reigning champion Olympiacos Piraeus has the chance to become the first repeat champion in eight years after it rolled past CSKA Moscow 52-69 in the first semifinal at the 2013 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four at The O2 in London. The Reds never trailed after the first quarter and led by double digits throughout the second half. Olympiacos will target its third continental crown against the winner of Friday’s second semifinal between FC Barcelona Regal and Real Madrid in the title game on Sunday. Kyle Hines paced a balanced Olympiacos attack with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Pero Antic added 13 points for the winners and seven other players netted between 5 and 8 points, including newly crowned bwin MVP Vassilis Spanoulis, who tallied 8 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists to reach his third final in as many Final Fours. Sonny Weems led CSKA with 13 points and Victor Khryapa scored 11. CSKA coach Ettore Messina lost for the first time in 10 Euroleague semifinal appearances. Olympiacos rolled ahead with 8 straight points to finish the first quarter and extended its lead to 13 before taking a 28-40 advantage at the break. The lead reached 17 by the end of the third as the Reds repelled any and all CSKA comeback attempts. With its sizeable traveling support singing in the background, Olympiacos finished in style and rolled into Sunday’s title game.

First quarter: Olympiacos finishes quarter on 0-8 tear

Weems nailed a long jumper to score the first points of the Final Four, before Georgios Printezis opened Olympiacos’s account with a layup. The opening minutes were packed with action as Weems countered with a triple, but Kostas Papanikolaou drove baseline for a big dunk . After Victor Khryapa hit another shot from downtown for CSKA, Spanoulis scored a layup, missed his additional free throw, but Printezis was there for a put-back. The Reds grabbed their first lead of the night on the next possession when Printezis added another close-range basket for 8-10. Khryapa answered with a long jumper, and after Acie Law made a driving layup, Weems hit a triple over Spanoulis for 13-12. Nenad Krstic added to CSKA’s tally with a dunk after a nifty assist from Zoran Erceg, but in the meantime Law, Spanoulis and Stratos Perperoglou went 6 for 6 from the foul line. Olympiacos went on to finish the quarter scoring 8 unanswered points, as Hines made a basket-plus-foul, and the Olympiacos faithful erupted when Kostas Sloukas hit a triple in the dying seconds of the quarter to give the Reds a 17-24 after 10 minutes.

Second quarter: Reds stretch advantage to double figures

Khryapa started the second quarter with a three-pointer, but Hines scored from close range and Antic from downtown to make it 20-29. Aaron Jackson briefly cut into the lead with a triple of his own, but a long jumper from Antic and a fastbreak layup from Law extended it to 23-35. After Coach Ettore Messina called for timeout, Sasha Kaun tried to get CSKA going with a slam dunk on one side and blocking couple of shots on the other. But Giorgi Shermadini muscled his way for a put-back-plus-foul and a 13-point advantage. Kaun continued to hustle, making a reverse layup, but Sloukas nailed a jump shot just inside the arc before both teams went into a two-minute scoring drought. Khryapa split free throws with 11 seconds to go, rounding out the scoring as Olympiacos grabbed a 28-40 halftime advantage.

Third quarter: Champs squash CSKA’s comeback attempts

A driving layup by Spanoulis opened the third quarter, and a Papanikolaou triple made it 28-45. In the first five minutes of the quarter, Weems went 4 for 4 from the foul line for the only CSKA points. Shermadini was called for an unsportsmanlike foul on Kaun, who made both free throws to cut the deficit to 34-45. But Moscow turned the ball over yet again on the ensuing possession, missing a chance to cut the margin to single digits. And Hines, who had grabbed the steal, made them pay with a long jumper to increase the gap to 13. Two Khryapa foul shots made it 36-47 before an Olympiacos timeout with three minutes left in the third. Moscow failed on three more occasions to inch below that magical 10-point deficit with Theo Papaloukas, Weems and Krstic all missing before a Hines put-back and an Antic triple had the reigning champs back up 16 points – 36-52. Krstic continued Moscow’s free throw woes by missing both foul shots with 5.6 seconds left in the quarter. Antic showed how it’s done with one foul shot with 0.2 seconds to give Olympiacos a 36-63 lead through three quarters.

Fourth quarter: Olympiacos marches on

At the start of the fourth quarter, Perperoglou and Hines scored from close range to put Olympiacos up 36-57. The reigning champs were not letting down defensively, not allowing a field goal until a fast break layup from Jackson. But Perperoglou answered right back with a triple for 40-60 with seven minutes to play. CSKA tried to make a final push by playing half-court pressure. Andrey Vorontsevich made a runner off the glass and Teodosic hit a triple for 47-62. But a pair of free throws from Antic, after an unsportsmanlike foul from Teodosic, coupled with two offensive rebounds, helped Olympiacos eat out the clock and keep it at safe distance. In the final minutes, Spanoulis made a layup and Antic added a put-back for 49-69 before a triple by Vladimir Micov rounded out the scoring.

Bench Olympiacos Piraeus celebrates - Final Four London 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Euroleague.net
Referees: CEREBUCH, GUERRINO; RYZHYK, BORYS; LATISEVS, OLEGS
Attendance: 9218
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow1711816
Olympiacos Piraeus24161316
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow17283652
Olympiacos Piraeus24405369
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 TEODOSIC, MILOS 29:05 5 0/4 1/5 2/4   3 3 1   2 1   2 5 1
5 MICOV, VLADIMIR 18:32 3 0/1 1/4     2 2 1   1     3 2  
7 JACKSON, AARON 22:09 7 1/1 1/4 2/2 1 1 2     2     3 2 3
12 KRSTIC, NENAD 14:55 2 1/5   0/4   2 2     1 1   1 3 -2
13 WEEMS, SONNY 35:37 13 1/2 2/5 5/8   3 3 1 1 1     1 4 13
17 ERCEG, ZORAN 5:10 2   0/1 2/2   1 1 2         2 1 3
18 VORONOV, EVGENY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY 4:57 2 1/2             1           2
24 KAUN, SASHA 29:24 7 2/3   3/4 2 5 7       3   1 2 16
31 KHRYAPA, VICTOR 29:10 11 1/3 2/3 3/6 2 3 5 2 1 3     2 6 14
33 PONKRASHOV, ANTON DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
44 PAPALOUKAS, THEODOROS 11:01     0/2     1 1 1   2     2   -4
Team           1 2 3     1         2
Totals 200:00 52 7/21 7/24 17/30 6 23 29 8 3 13 5 0 17 25 48
        33.3% 29.2% 56.7%
Head coach: MESSINA, ETTORE
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
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 HINES, KYLE 19:48 13 5/10   3/3 3 7 10   2     2 4 2 16
5 LAW, ACIE 27:52 6 2/3   2/2 1   1 1   1   1   1 6
6 ANTIC, PERO 22:03 13 2/4 2/5 3/4 1 2 3         1 2 2 9
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 32:01 8 3/6 0/6 2/3   5 5 4 1 3     3 7 9
8 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 20:17 8 1/2 1/2 3/4   2 2 2 1       3 2 9
9 SHERMADINI, GIORGI 12:19 5 2/5   1/1 2 1 3     2   1 3 2 1
10 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 20:18 5 1/3 1/4   1 3 4 3         2   5
12 POWELL, JOSH 7:53   0/2               2     3   -7
13 GECEVICIUS, MARTYNAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 17:46 6 3/4     1 4 5     1     2 1 8
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 14:41 5 1/2 1/1   1 2 3   1 2     2   4
19 KATSIVELIS, DIMITRIS 5:02           1 1           1    
Team           2 2 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 69 20/41 5/18 14/17 12 29 41 10 5 12 0 5 25 17 63
        48.8% 27.8% 82.4%
Head coach: BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS

Head Coaches

MESSINA, ETTORE
CSKA Moscow
"I think the only thing we can do is to congratulate Olympiacos for a great game. They overwhelmed us with their physicality and their aggressiveness. They forced us too poorly on offense to win this game. They forced us to play individually when all season we were the team that had one of the highest number of assists per game. They forced us to become lonely on offense. And they controlled the tempo of the game. It’s a tough loss after getting here and after all the talk about last year. It’s a very, very tough loss. We have to make an effort to be able to handle this. I wish them to play another great game in the final because it’s not easy to get back to the final the year after you win. With CSKA we did it a couple of times and it was a great, great accomplishment. I just wish them to be a little bit more lucky than we were in those two times. For sure our plan was to try to take away their two-point game but if you look at the scoring chart you see a lot of red points inside our three seconds area because they went to the basket a lot of times."
BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"We wanted to control the rebounds and we had the patience to reach the end. The shooting percentages are not always high in a game like this but in the end the defense won the game. The players played for each other and played together, psychologically and tactically. I would really like to thank our fans. In these difficult times in Europe financially, they paid a lot of money to be here. We will all do our best to win the final. I don’t really believe we played a perfect game. Defensively our goals succeeded. The most important thing is that we played together. We had a psychological plan and a tactical plan. Both were very important in handling the pressure and dealing with a very good team with a lot of experienced players and a very experienced coach. Obviously our psychological plan was correct. If we played tomorrow with Moscow the result would have maybe been different."

Players

KAUN, SASHA
CSKA Moscow
"I think we just did not play well. We had a lot of mistakes, we did not have the team flow we usually do. On offense we could not do anything. I thought defensively, overall, we played good, as they did not score too many points. But it is hard to base the game solely on defense if you are not going to score. So it was difficult for us, and unfortunately, Olympiacos was better than us and ended up beating us. "
KRSTIC, NENAD
CSKA Moscow
"It is hard to say something smart because it was a catastrophe how we as a team played. It is the second time in row we are losing a Final Four game against Olympiacos, and this time they really deserved to win. They totally outplayed us. Those of us who need to carry this team must take the responsibility for this loss."
WEEMS, SONNY
CSKA Moscow
"I tip my hats off to Olympiacos. We played terrible today. I haven't seen us play like that in a long time. Some of the guys did not show up, and it is the worst game we played the whole season. Especially in the Final Four, you should not play like this. And we played terrible. If we wanted to play like this, we should have stayed at home. It was terrible."
HINES, KYLE
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It was amazing defensive effort from us tonight. Our coach gave us a great game plan and it was a great team effort. From the beginning, we wanted to set the tempo of the game – and we did that. The guys that were on the court played as a team. Everybody came in, played well and played their role. Probably, under these circumstances, it was our best defensive game this season. Hopefully we have a better one in us and can do that on Sunday!"
ANTIC, PERO
Olympiacos Piraeus
"What a great feeling... I can't explain it. We are the best group of guys in Europe. Nobody has better mentality than us. It's about team, playing together, brotherhood. We're always there for each other. That's our secret. We were underdogs for this game, but maybe it was even more motivation. We dominated the game almost all 40 minutes. CSKA is a very good team, but we did a great job today stopping them. Last season we won only in the last second, but this season it was a totally different story. But it doesn’t matter. In the Final Four the key is to get a win. By a point or by 20. I don't know what people expected from the game, but we gave a good show today. If I'm a fan of basketball who bought a ticket to the Final Four I cannot be disappointed from what we showed today."
PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It's a big win for us. We were underdogs coming here. Everybody thought that we're like outsiders in this Final Four, but we showed today what we can do. This is a great feeling for all of us and we're also very happy for our fans. We showed that we deserve to be here, if anyone had any doubts. We don't care who will play with us in the finals on Sunday. We come to win against any team as we did all season. We will try to win again on Sunday. Both are very good teams."
SLOUKAS, KOSTAS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"We're very excited to make it to the finals of the Euroleague two years in a row. I don't think anybody expected that from us, but we made it. We're a group of players that play together. This is the way to win basketball games, especially in the Final Four. Today we played very good defense. We were focused on what we wanted to do. We had a plan and this is how we limited such a great team as CSKA on 52 points. Olympiacos is a big club in European basketball. Not that many clubs made the Euroleague finals back to back. I had to have a bigger role from January when we had some injuries, and I'm happy I was able to help my team as much as I can. We have on our jersey a patch of the 2012 trophy. Now we want 2013 as well. It could be an amazing achievement."
PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"We were focused all 40 minutes and that is one of the biggest reasons why we won the game. We played with a lot of heart, as we have always done this season. It doesn't matter who we play in the final, Real Madrid or Barcelona. What I prefer is to play the way we did today! If we play like that, we can beat any team."
SPANOULIS, VASSILIS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It was an unbelievable defensive game for us. We played great defense all the way and that helped us to beat a really tough opponent. This is one of the best defensive efforts I have ever seen! We played great defense and did it as a team. We were unbelievably focused on defense and everyone had an excellent game, with big heart. After a very hard season, we are back in the Euroleague final. It is one more game; we played 30 games in this Euroleague season and we need one more win!"
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