By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus undertook a major transformation at halftime to erase a 15-point deficit, dominate the third period and ultimately get the 75 – 71 win over Alba Berlin to improve its record to 5-3.
Shaq McKissic (14 points), Livio Jean-Charles (13 points, all of them in the last 17 minutes, plus six rebounds) and Sasha Vezenkov (11 points) scored in double figures from an Olympiacos team that put on some tremendous defense on the court in the third period, forcing Alba to just nine points.
On the other side, Giorgos Bartozokas’ players improved their ball movement and efficiency (that was horrendous in the first half when the team had 10 turnovers) while Vassilis Spanoulis led the offensive comeback charge with two assists and back-to-back 3-pointers as his team closed the quarter with a 11-0 run and 27 points overall to take the lead for the first time in the game.
Alba, that previously led 20 – 35 and was up 24 – 35 at halftime, found themselves down 51 – 44 and fought back to approach 53 – 52. But that was when the hosts made a 10 – 0 counterattack with consecutive 3-point plays to establish an advantage that guided them for the remainder of the match.
Niels Giffey (13 points, six rebounds), Maodo Lo (10 points) and Johannes Thiemann (10 points) were the top scorers from Alba. The German team, that was minus guard Peyton Siva, dropped to 1 – 5 following this loss.
The reigning German champions caught their opponents off guard in the beginning of the game and took advantage of their many mistakes to establish their hold. Everything, however, turned upside down after the break.