The Spanish team prevailed 77-68
Olympiacos “touched” a huge breakthrough, but finally… was carried away by Barcelona’s “third storm”, which forced it to its first defeat of the year in euroleague, in the busy SEF. The Piraeus “fell” with the final 68-77 by the Catalans, for the 2nd matchday of the top European inter-club competition, with the visitors continuing their European journey undefeated.
The doubles of Greece, who lined up without the injured Nigel Williams-Goss, Shaquille McKissick and Luke Sikma, found rhythm in the attack through their well-structured defense, came back from the -15 (20-35) found in the 14′ and with a flawless start in the fourth period showed they were capable of overcoming, when with individual scores of 12-3 they found themselves at +7 (66-59) in the 36th minute. However, the guests again found a rhythm from 6.75m., Olympiacos ran out of strength and followed a disastrous 0-14 run at the expense of the 66-73, which ended at 45” to the end, with which Barcelona celebrated a huge “double”.
The leader of the winners, who scored 15/26 three-pointers, was the “executioner” of Olympiakos, Nikolas Laprovitola, with 17 points (3/5tr.), while his worthy supporter was Alex Abrines with 16 points (5/7tr.). From the team of Giorgos Bartzokas, Tomas Walkup (14 points), Alec Peters (11 points) and Nikola Miloutinov (10 points) fought.
The mistakes of Olympiakos put him with… good evening in a disadvantageous position, seeing the Catalans quickly find a rhythm from the perimeter and write 16-23 at 10′. The “red and whites” did not manage to limit the “executions” of the Catalans from 6.75 even at the beginning of the second period and in the 14th minute they saw the light board write 20-35 against them. Larentzakis, with a personal outburst, tried to ignite the spark of the Greek team’s counterattack, but with 2/10 three-pointers, the Piraeus team did not manage to do better than 34-40 at halftime.
With pressure on the defense and Kanan “warming up”, Olympiacos equalized at 42-42 in the 23′, but the “Blaugrana” put the “brake” on with a 0-8 run, while “loading” the American guard with 4 fouls in the 26′ , setting up the knockout. Again, however, Bartzoka’s team did not let the gap open, staying within breathing distance (54-56 at 30′), before the big counterattack.
At the start of the fourth period, the transformed Olympiacos found in the face of Walkup the executioner they were looking for from 6.75 and with individual scores of 12-3 they found themselves at +7 (66-59) for the first time in the 36th minute. However, the fatigue of the “red and white” brought mistakes, with Barcelona again punishing with consecutive three-pointers, responding with a 0-10 streak and “locking” the “double”.
The quarters: 16-23, 34-40, 54-56, 68-77
OLYMPIC (Giorgos Bartzokas): Walkup 14 (2), Kanan 9 (1), Lountzis 3 (1), Larentzakis 5 (1), Fall 4, Papanikolaou 7, Brazdeikis 5, Peters 11 (2), Miloutinov 10.
BARCELONA (Roger Grimau): Da Silva 7, Vesely 8, Brithuela, Kalinic 8 (2), Satoranski 5 (1), Hernangomet, Laprovitola 17 (3), Abrines 16, Parker 3 (1), Nagy, Jokubaitis 10 (2) , Para 3 (1).
