Maroussi (Spanoulis' team) join quarterfinals!!!

Report: Maroussi Honda vs. Deichmann Slask

Maroussi Honda reached the ULEB Cup quarterfinals in record-breaking fashion on Wednesday by thrashing Deichmann Slask 109-72 at home in Athens. Maroussi swept the two-game series and will face Makedonikos in the next round, guaranteeing at least one Greek team in the semifinals. Giorgos Karagoutis led the winners with 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, Blagota Sekulic and Vassilis Spanoulis each added 17, Markos Kolokas 14, Roderick Blakney 11 and Christos Stefanidis 10 for Maroussi. The winners broke the game with a 18-3 run in the opening quarter and never looked back. Maciej Zielinski led Slask with 16 points, Ryan Randle added 15 while Radoslaw Hyzy had 14 and 10 rebounds. Maroussi used a mammoth 17-0 run in which Sekulic had 7 points to get a 30-point lead at halftime and seal the outcome of the series. The 37-point final margin was the biggest ever in a ULEB Cup post-season game, beating the previous mark of 33, set by Makedonikos in its 90-57 victory against Varese on Tuesday night.

Maroussi didn't face any problem to play its game and dominate in both ends of the court from the start. Great defense and a fast tempo dictated by Spanoulis led to consecutive fastbreaks as Maroussi created early double-digit margins and the game was transformed to one team show. Karagoutis, Blakney and Sekulic managed to score easily, while Slask struggled to react. At the end of the first quarter, Maroussi held a 26-16 lead. To start the second quarter, Maroussi played an impressive run-and-gun game to extend the gap. The hosts made a 13-2 burst to a 39-18 lead after 14 minutes and proved unstoppable while offering highlights to their fans. Randle was the only Slask player in the fight, but Maroussi continued to play up-tempo and soon doubled the guests on the scoreboard. Then, in the last 5 minutes of the second quarter, Maroussi essentially finished the series with a 16-0 run that lifted the score to 56-26 at halftime, by which time the hosts' defense had made 12 steals.

With a total margin of 40 points, the12-point gap from the first leg included, Slask had neither the potential nor the opportunities to come back and threaten Marouissi. The hosts' head coach, Panagiotis Giannakis, was very happy to watch his team playing seriously and with a lot of concentration and intensity both on defense and offense. He had also the chance to give a lot of rest to the starters and deliver playing time to reserve players on the way to their biggest win in European competitions. Maroussi kept connecting with the basket and, as a result, closed the third quarter with a 33-point, 85-52. Nothing was changed in the fourth period, as the hosts achieved their main goal, to pass the 100-point barrier, which happened thanks to a three-point shot made by Dimitris Lollas, who played instead of Aleksandar Smiljanic, sidelined due to flu. At the end, Maroussi celebrated their 10th consecutive win in 2005, both in the Greek League and the ULEB Cup, by 109-72 and looked forward to meeting Makedonikos in the quarterfinals.


Vassilis Skountis, Athens


http://www.ulebcup.com/

 

Spanoulis can play the point and Peja can play the SF position for us