Olympia Edge EclipseJet MyGuide Amsterdam

Olympia Athienitis broke into the EuroChallenge win column with a 77-73 victory over EclipseJet MyGuide Amsterdam on Tuesday.

Michael King scored 15 points and former Germany international center Stephen Arigbabu had 12 along with seven rebounds for the Greek team which had to make several free throws in the final minute to secure their first triumph in three Group E games.

The Dutch outfit was on top 69-68 with 2:28 remaining after Tamien Trent's tip-in.

Neither side scored again until Olympia's Terrel Castle went to the line with 1:11 to go and made two free throws for a 70-69 Olympia advantage.

After Trent missed a lay-up, he fouled Marios Batis and the Olympia ace added two more at the stripe to put the home side ahead at 72-69.

Amsterdam weren't able to launch a potential game-tying three-ball, however.

Instead, Olympia fouled Teddy Gipson and he sank both attempts to close the gap to just one point with 26 seconds remaining.

The game turned into a free-throw shooting contest.

The visitors fouled Castle, and he made only the second of two shots at the charity stripe.

With MyGuide now having a chance to tie the game or go back in front, Orien Greene was called for an offensive foul, however, and that turned the ball back over to Olympia with 16 seconds remaining.

Batis made two free throws to make it 75-71 and then fouled Trent with 12 seconds to go. He made both to reduce the deficit to 75-73.

MyGuide (2-1) decided to foul King and he sank both attempts with 11 seconds left for the 77-73 final.

Quotes Olympia vs. EclipseJet MyGuide

Arie Shivek, Amsterdam Coach: 

"We knew everything about Olympia, we were prepared. I've faced many Greek teams at the past, even the national team, and I knew that we had to play physical, something we didn't do in the first half. At the half time brake I told my players than we had to play as a team, stop them on the fastbrake. We did it and managed to lead by two points. Then the game started to be played with free throws by fouls and we came to the loosing side." 

Giorgos Bartzokas, Olympia Larissa Coach:

"It's a difficult group with many good teams, good players and big budgets. We faced today a very athletic team and we had a problem with it. We saw two faces at the game. One face in the first half, than we played good defense and aggressive, but in the second half we saw another face. We expect two players to return next week, C. Belser and S. Karapostolou, so we hope to do better."

Tamian Trent, Amsterdam Guard: 

"Olympia is a very good team, and they played good in the first half. We gave everything in the second half, but it wasn't enough. Congratulations to my teammates for playing at the second half." 

Mirza Kurtovik, Olympia Larissa Guard:

"We had a good first half, but we blacked out, as always at the second. Very important win for us, keeps us alive in the tournament"