Olympiacos Piraeus are the new Euroleague Champions: Pull off a 62-61 heist over CSKA Moscow
The 2012 Turkish Euroleague Final between Greek giants Olympiacos Piraeus and the Russian Champions CSKA Moscow will go down the annals of history as one of the greatest matches to be played at the grandest stage of them all.
Staring at a 19 point hole deep into the third quarter, Olympiacos reeled off a 14 to nothing run to come within striking distance and after clinging on through the entire fourth quarter, got lucky when Ramunas Siskauskas missed
both of his free throws, and a chance to put his team up by 3 9.7 seconds left. Down came the Reds for one final assault, and with just 0.7 seconds left on the clock Georgios Printezis sank a floater right into the hearts of the Russians to churn out a famous
win, and a second European title for his franchise.
"This is a great success and a very big moment for us, for the club and for the fans. We are very happy to make them happy after so many years.” Printezis said after the game, “The last basket did not win the game; we won it during
the game. We were focused, we never gave up. And we won.
Printezis finished the night with 12 points for Olympiacos, who were led by the sensational Kostas Papanikolau. The forward who had averaged only 6.1 points in this season saved his best for the finals and erupted with 18 points
on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting from the floor, which included three long range bombs. That was however only half of his effort. Papanikolau was at the centre of the great defensive hustle of the Reds especially in the last quarter.
Vassilis Spanoulis, who was pivotal in the semifinal win against Barcelona, also added 15 points for the Greeks.
Milos Teodosic led the CSKA charge with 15 points; MVP Andrei Kirilenko recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds while Nenad Krstic had 11.
The Russians seemed to be cruising towards the win at one point. After a tough first quarter, they were leading by 10-7 and then scored the first four points of the second frame to make it 14-7. The flood gates opened for CSKA
after that. The Russians sprinted to an 11-6 run in the next couple of minutes and by the close of the first half, they extended their lead to 34-20.
CSKA outscored Olympiacos 24-13 in the second quarter and with two minutes to go in the third; they pushed their advantage to 53-34. The game looked done and dusted for the Greeks at that point, but they just didn’t know how to
die wandering. The Reds started off with a 14-0 run and bamboozled the Russians 28-8 in the last 12 minutes of the game to ensure that the title stayed in Greece.
Kostas Papanikolau was in another world after the win;
"There are no words to express what I am feeling right now. I have no words to describe what a great team is here. This is a family and we fought all together. We have taken Olympiacos to the next level. This is what it is in my
mind right now. I will never, ever forget this moment. It is the greatest moment in my life, and we have the best fans in the world!"
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