Bartzokas: “This victory is really great – Congratulations to the players and the world”

With an excellent second half, mainly in defense, o Olympic made the upset and defeated 74-69 Virtus Bolognain SEF, overcoming the -2 loss in the first round.

After the match, George Bartzokas congratulated his players at the press conference, describing the victory as “great”, while referring to the injured ahead of the upcoming derby with Panathinaikos ACTOR (14/03).

His statements in detail:

“Congratulations to Virtus for her mature game. They have very experienced players who know how to create shots for themselves, they also have Sengelia who knows very well the post game, scoring and creation. It is no accident what they have achieved so far. This win is really great. Especially under these circumstances, without Walkup, with Williams-Goss coming in after a month with one practice, with Mitrou-Long having half a practice, without Larentzakis.

It’s not just how you execute, it’s how you prepare the game. We were hesitant and not decisive in the first half, especially in defense. We had to take the step forward, we had to cover the absence of our best defender. We did it amazingly in the third quarter when we conceded five and put up 20 points. The image of the match has completely changed. We had a lot of mistakes and few assists in the first half, that changed in the second half. Congratulations to the team, the players, the world, we will continue.”

For when there will be a clear picture of the injured: “Soon we will have a picture of the injured. We have an amazing team, they do double and triple treatments, yesterday they finished at 22:30. Walkup and Larentzakis couldn’t play tonight, I hope in the derby they can play.”