By Cesare Milanti /info@Eurohoops.net
KAUNAS, Lithuania – Coming out of the halftime break with additional focus and outscoring AS Monaco by a margin of 25 points in the third quarter was the theme for Olympiacos across postgame reactions.
“We were really nervous in the first half,” mentioned Greek play-caller Giorgos Bartzokas in the postgame press conference, “In the locker room before the second half, we discussed a little bit. We changed a few things but basically showed some support to the players. We realized that we were nervous. We had to calm down.”
Dominating the second half, his side marched to the championship game of the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four.
“For sure, the third quarter was one of the best defensive quarters that we ever had,” he underlined describing the 27-2 run in the flash interview following the Kaunas Final Four opener, “We didn’t allow anything easy to Monaco.”
The Reds trailed 41-29 at the break but ended up with a 56-43 lead at the conclusion of the third period.
“Team effort. We said in halftime, we got to play better defense,” mentioned team captain Kostas Papanikolaou, “We opened up our offense through the defense. We got good momentum. We got good vibes. Shots started dropping. Everything opened up for us.”
Apart from essentially deciding the winner of the contest, the third period also set a new record for the largest point difference in one single quarter across EuroLeague Final Four history.
“We said at halftime this is not us. We did not come here for this,” said Sasha Vezenkov after tallying a game-high 19 points in the Final Four Semifinal win over Monaco.
Postgame press conference
Facing the winner of the Final Four Clasico between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, the Greek powerhouse will compete for the championship Sunday.