Tomic, Zagreb Beat Olympia To Advance

KK Zagreb beat Olympia 63-58 on Tuesday to avenge last week's narrow one-point defeat and qualify for the EuroCup Quarter Final Round.

In a do-or-die game for both sides, Zagreb got an outstanding performance from their young Croatian center Ante Tomic.

He finished with 19 point and nine rebounds while also dishing out four assists.

"We had very big pressure in this game because it means a lot of for us," Tomic said.

Zagreb seemed to be in control, especially whenever Tomic was on the floor.

Early in the fourth quarter, they seized a 56-49 advantage and all seemed to be going according to plan for the home side.

Olympia didn't go away, though.

When Marios Batis dunked midway through the quarter, they trailed just 58-56.

That would be as close as they got, however.

Petar Babic drilled a three-pointer to restore the five-point lead.

Olympia continued to hang around and closed the gap to 51-48 on two Batis free throws with 51 seconds left.

Filip Basljan sank two from the stripe of his own with 15 seconds remaining for the final score.

Batis said to FIBA Europe courtside after the game: "It's a pity to have gone out of the competition.

"We couldn't prepare as well for this game as we had wanted because we had some players out and our coach didn't come with us on this trip because he had a stomach bug.

"We still could have won the game, but at least we tried. We wish Zagreb all the best of luck."

Quotes KK Zagreb vs. Olympia

Marios Batis, Olympia Larisa-    

"We had a lot of problems with injuries. We couldn't have a good rhythm in practice the last month. We were prepare for a hard game, we know that Zagreb is a good shooting team with a lot of fastbreaks, we made it a slow game but we didn't have success. Congratulation to Zagreb and good luck in the next round."

Ante Tomić, player of KK Zagreb CO-    

"We had very big pressure in this game because it means a lot of for us. Our coach prepared us for this hard game, he told us that we had a problems in offense but we played a good defence and won."

Giorgos Bartzokas, Assistant coach of Olympia Larisa-    

"We had a lot of problems, also our coach is ill, he has a high temperature and fever. We tried to play slow and I think that we made that but Zagreb were the better team today and I wish them good luck in the next round."

Željko Pavličević, coach of KK Zagreb CO-    

"Congratulation to my players. We had big pressure because most of our players never played so important a game. Arigbabu suprised us in offence, Vladović played the worst game this seaon in offence but we had success. Congratulation to my players and I hope that we have chances in quarter - finals."