Elite League: Psychiko was saved, Esperos Lamias fell

Although he found himself trailing 65-61 with 1:26 remaining, the Psychic defeat him Espero Lamia with 71-67 in “Halkiopoulio” in the last match of the play outs and with 4-3 secured his stay in the Elite League Errikos Dunan.

Sotiris Oikonomopoulos had 5 of his 11 points in the final seconds, while Isaiah Burke had 15 and Isaiah Ross had 14 for the winners. For the losers, who are relegated to National League 1, Stefan Djordjevic stood out with 17 and Dimitris Legikas with 16 points.

“Congratulations to Espero for showing great heart in the series and coming back from 3-0 down. But I want to give a thousand times more congratulations to my athletes, because despite the mistakes we made, they showed great heart and what they achieved is 100% their own work. It’s a great joy, I’ve been in the team for 21 years, it’s my home. I have immense joy and relief. We performed a great miracle, came back from last place and saved ourselves. The team has history and momentum, it is a very healthy organization and all the athletes are having a good time. You don’t leave your house easily. This season was the biggest school, my graduate school“, stated the coach of Psychikos, Giorgos Remendelas.

On the other hand, the coach of Esperos Lamias, Yiannis Sofogiannis said: “I am proud of the players, my partners, their effort and the people of Lamia who filled the stadium. In sports there are good times and bad times. At 0-3 we saw the specter of relegation, he wanted great strength to go to 3-3. The year ends ingloriously at the end, but we are here to fight and see the next day which will not be easy. Congratulations to Psychiko, they won fairly, they were more focused. Well done to all the lads for a great run and congratulations to the federation for the opportunity to play in such a competitive league. We will try to find as much strength as we can to move forward».

Esperos GS Lamia-Psyhiko 67-71

Referees: Poursanidis, Tsolakos, Katotikidis (Theodoropoulos G.)

Quarters: 16-18, 32-35, 51-52, 67-71

Esperos Lamias (Sofogiannis): Phytros 9 (1), Nikolaidis, Liapis 5 (1), Manoilovics 11, Alexiadis, Georgevics 17 (1), Legikas 16 (2), Papantoniou 7, Xydis 2, Ioannou.

Psychiko (Remendelas): Papanikolaou 12 (1), Burke 15 (1), Topali 5 (1), Ross 14 (1), Diamantakos 4, Oikonomopoulos 11 (1), Athanasoulas 8, Balos 2, Anagnostopoulos, Pitoulis.