By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Matt Lojeski and Giorgos Printezis dropped 15 points apiece, as Olympiacos returned to EuroLeague victories with a 77 – 71 roadkill against Darussafaka Dogus in Istanbul.
This was win no. 6 for the Greek team while coach Blatt’s squad fell to a 5 – 5 record faced a second defeat in a row, despite the fantastic efforts of Will Clyburn (21 points, 5 rebounds)
The Reds held control on what was taking place on the floor during the vast majority of the game, constantly holding a lead which they momentarily lost only for a moment early the second quarter when Dacka mde it 27-26. By blocking the Turkish team’s favorite drives to the basket and throwing intense pressure in the creative poles of their opponents, coach Sfairopoulos’ players managed to go to the locker rooms with an advantage of 9, 43 – 34.
Lojeski was particularly fiery in the first twenty minutes of the match where he scored 13 points and grabbed most of his 7 rebounds, striking equally well in both set plays or transition, the latter being a primary weapon of Olympiacos.
It took some time, but the hosts recovered a bit thanks to some long range shooting courtesy of Dairis Bertans to finish the third quarter trailing by 6, 51 – 57. But their most potent charge came later when they targeted Oly’s lackluster pick n’ roll defenses and poor helps, with Furkan Aldemir (10 points, 6 rebounds) to slowly chew more and more pieces of their deficit until they approached from a distance of two, 61 – 63, in the mid of the fourth period.
But Olympiacos‘ “secondary unit” of Daniel Hackett (3 points, 4 assists) and Erick Green (10 points, 8 in the fourth quarter) provided vital helps and then Printezis and Spanoulis (13 points, 5 assists) jumped in to keep Darussafaka at bay with their combined efforts for the 68 – 76. With 92 seconds left for the final horn to sound, the Reds were concentrated enough to not give up their lead, thus reaching their desired goal.