Aris will need a huge effort on 20th January against Olympiacos, in order to turn around their 14-point defeat suffered in the 1st leg of the Hellenic Cup semifinals, Fotis Katsikaris said after his team’s loss in Piraeus (78-64).

“We most definitely could have kept a tighter score difference and even maybe win this. If the shots we called in offense were better, the final result would be much better for us. In the last 1:25 we could have handled time in a better way. Olympiacos has both the talent and the power to take advantage of such mistakes. This way, they got this 14-point difference, which is very important. It will take a huge effort on our side in the 2nd leg, because it is very difficult to win by a larger difference, as we will have to do. We’ll see how both teams get to that game, in a month’s time”, mr. Katsikaris quoted at the Press Conference.

On a question about Juan Dixon’s foul on Milos Teodosic, which gave the latter the opportunity to shoot free throws and make it 72-64, Aris’s head coach explained that Dixon hasn’t had any similar experience in the past: “Although Juan is a smart player, it was difficult for him to understand that the score difference was important, too, even if we lost. The point system, applied in two-leg games as this, isn’t familiar to him”.

On the other side, Olympiacos’s head coach, Panagiotis Yannakis, stated: “We controlled the game, but some nervous plays and wrong passes gave them the opportunity to score easy baskets. However, when playing 5 on 5 I believe that we defended pretty well. We didn’t have the tempo we would like to have, but despite this we kept our concentration until the end. We managed to keep cold blood and win a tough opponent”.