An amazing start for the Women Basketball team as it beat Gorzow 69-50 in Glyfada’s sporting hall for the first day of FIBA EuroCup. The ‘’Reds’’ had a great performance in the largest part of the game. Although the best player of the team, Evina Maltsi was absent because of her injury, it kept the rhythm under control until the end without giving any chance to Gorzow to win. 

Key action: 

Thanks to its good defence, Olympiacos imposed the rhythm from the beginning of the game and closed the first quarter leading 19-8. Kaltsidou was excellent under the rim and Macaulay did a to-point shot to boost Olympiacos’ lead to +14 (34-20) at halftime. In the second half, the ‘’Reds’’ kept the same tempo and the consecutive points of Chatzinikolaou and Anderson increased the margin to +27 (53-26) which proves the "red-white" dominance in the third quarter.

In the last period, Gorzow made an effort to come back and reduced the margin (61-45).  However, Olympiacos kept the control and went up to +20 (65-45) putting a premature end to the game (69-50).  

Match data:

The quarters: 19-8, 34-20, 57-39, 69-50

Olympiacos (Eleni Kapogianni): Mazic 8 (2/3 3p), Stamati 10 (5 as.), Chatzinikolaou 10 (2/2 3p, 5 as.), Nikolopoulou, Sotiriou, Anderson 18 (1 3p), Macaulay 16 (9 reb.), Spyridopoulou, Kosma 5 (1 3p), Kaltsidou 12 (as.)

Gorzow (Dariusz Maciejewski): Spencer 4, Rytsikava 15, Prezelj 8, Donders 3, Jaworska 2, Pawlak 2, Szajtauer 4, Misiek 2, Stelmach 3, Swords 7

Quotes:

Kapogianni said: ‘’It was a great start for us. It is essential to win the home games because it makes us feel more confident about the next matches. Now, we have a tough game against Besiktas and hope that our performance will be better and better.’’

Missas stated: ‘’We are very satisfied with our defence tonight. The third quarter wasn’t so good but we kept the game under control and know what we need to improve, especially on the offense. We try to exploit the weaknesses of the opponent but there are many things to do so as to reach the desiring the level.’’ 

Chatzinikolaou mentioned: ‘‘It was a difficult game but we achieved to win as we followed the plan of the coach. We are trying to improve our performance as we are in the beginning of the season. Now, we have to focus on the next game against Besiktas.’’

Kaltsidou said: ‘’We got a positive result but we have to be improved as the next game is more difficult. The last experience in European competition is good for our preparation as we know what to change and ameliorate. The lack of competitive balance has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, we do not face teams with the quality of European ones which makes us less competitive in European competitions but on the other hand, we have time to rest more and focus on EuroCup. We are used to training at the 100% and so, we are ready for every tough game.’’