After the end of the game, the two coaches did not have much to say, since they were both satisfied with their players’ efforts (each of them for different reasons).
It is typical that Zeljko Obradovic underlined: “I, first of all, want to thank Peristeri for accepting to play a day earlier. To us, having and extra preparation day in view of the Euroleague playoffs is very important. From the beginning of the game we played aggressively in defense, and this is what we had said we wanted to do before the game. Peristeri played seriously and the coach deserves to be congratulated for giving new young guys an opportunity.”
In his turn, Ian Vougioukas said: “We knew that Peristeri has undergone a lot of changes compared to the first game. We played very well, generally speaking. Of course, there was also the third quarter where our performance was really poor and we must look into that in order to not have any periods where we draw a blank. Congratulations to Peristeri and Argyris Pedoulakis for giving a chance to young players.”
Peristeri’s coach, Argyris Pedoulakis, noted: “I believe that our new young guys are very lucky because today they caught Panathinaikos on a preparation stage and got to realize what real basketball is all about. Today they drew experiences and understood how fast the ball must travel and what aggressive defense is all about. We committed many turnovers, but insisted on playing with young guys, because I believe that at the end of the day this is going help them.”
Finally, Peristeri’s forward, Harris Giannopoulos, stressed: “We tried to match some defenses, but Panathinaikos has extremely good and experienced players and was very difficult for us to come up with solutions. We will keep going; we have young guys and will continue fighting every game.”
