By Lefteris Moutis / moutis@eurohoops.net
Kostas Sloukas was great and led Olympiacos to a 1-0 lead (76-70) vs Panathinaikos in the Greek finals, despite a crescento by Loukas Mavrokefalidis who was the leading scorer of the game with 23 points.
Next to Sloukas (16p), Bryant Dunston (13p, 12 rebs), Giorgos Printezis (12 p, 6 rebs) and Matt Lojeski (13p) were the leaders of a balanced offensive effort.
Coach Sotiris Manolopoulos surprised everyone by his decision to keep Diamantidis on the bench during the start of the game. Panathinaikos wasn’t aggresive and Olympiacos took advantage of it (8-3, 6′). But not for so long. The captain of the Greens entered the court and Antonis Fotsis executed perfectly, having 10 points with 4/4 shots in the first minutes and pushing his team to a 20-2 run during five minutes of action (10-23, 11′).
Olympiacos reacted thanks to Kostas Sloukas who was once again the game changer! The 25-year old guard altered the tempo of the match, scored, passed and led the hosts to a 18-0 run (28-23, 17′).
Panathinaikos tried to react focusing on the post up game by Mavrokefalidis and did it pretty well (33-36, 21′), while Olympiacos started the game with 0/13 threes in the first half. When Printezis and Mantzaris finally found their hand from the perimeter (3/4 3ps in the first five minutes of the third quarter), Olympiacos took a +12 (51-39) lead.
The visitors tried again to hurt the Reds in the post with Mavrokefalidis and Fotsis (53-50, 30′) but Olympiacos bounced back again with Sloukas and Lojeski being decisive (72-58, 35′). Game 2 will be held in OAKA on Wednesday (10/6). Ιn the series for the third place which leads to Eurocup PAOK got the 67-60 win over Aris.