By Dionysis Aravantinos / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens was once again impressive at home defeating Unicaja Malaga and remaining undefeated in ‘O.A.C.A’ and after the game, coach Plaza addressed the game and Suarez’s ejection stating that he does not look for excuses.
As Plaza explained: “I never look for excuses, but we had three players missing. Shermandini, Waczynski, and Carlos in the fourth quarter. Suarez did not understand what happened on the court, he committed a foul and then received a second technical foul and eventually got ejected from the game. We cannot disappear in these kinds of moments, we don’t have to complain to the referees and finally, we need to keep fighting under these tough circumstances in the final minutes.”
Speaking about the game, Plaza explained about the last period: “We were playing a good game for the first three quarters even when Panathinaikos played physical in the 3rd. We played a bad fourth quarter, it is something strange, we had 16 turnovers, Panathinaikos had only 11, we had some unsportsmanlike fouls, technical fouls, ejections that affected the game and they used their experience to win. We lost the control of our defensive rebounds, they had three-point shots and second shot opportunities. But many strange things happened on the court.”
On the other hand, Xavi Pascual added: “It was a typical game and knew that it was going to be like this from the start. In the first half, we did not score under the basket, did not make easy shots, and we only scored 32 points. It was a typical game at home after many days without playing. In the second half, we find a way to win, playing well on both ends of the court. Unicaja played really well, but in the final ten minutes of the game we put extra effort into the game and finally got this important win.”
However, Pascual is not happy with all his players: “We challenged almost every game and this is something good for us. In Moscow, against CSKA we did not play really well but we remained in the game. The team tries to do its best and win every game. We need however all of our players to play to their full potentials every game. There are players who have played good in certain games but we need to make this more stable, in order to be better. We are still in the first half of the season and there are things we will improve moving forward.”