By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus beat Barcelona 77-70 at home to bounce back to wins and sweep the Blaugrana in the EuroLeague regular season.
The Reds improved to 19-8 and reclaimed their spot in the first place in the standings while Barca fell to 18-9 after suffering its first loss following five straight victories.
The triplette of Shaq McKissic (16 points), Giannoulis Larentzakis (15 points on 4-5 threes, five rebounds) and Sasha Vezenkov (14 points) scored in double figures for Olympiacos. The latter two scored key buckets down the stretch to secure their team’s win.
Vezenkov hit the triple for the 70 – 63 with two minutes remaining. and scored to make it 72 – 65. Larentzakis then drained a 3-pointer of his own to put Olympiaocs up 75 – 65 with 1:03 to play.
As Larentzakis explained: “I try always to do my best and to help my team with everything; with defense, with offense, with hustle types of games. I’m happy because it was a very important win for our home advantage, and now we keep going because in the next few days we play against Bayern.”
Cory Higgins, who had all of his 10 points in the final period, was forced to commit a turnover on the end, as time was running out for Barcelona.
Nikola Mirotic led Barcelona overall with 19 points plus seven rebounds. Nicola Laprovittola had 15 points plus eight assists (and five turnovers) and Sertac Sanli scored 13. Their team had a strong start to lead 11-22 early in the second period.
Olympiacos‘ secondary unit responded with a 12-0 run and McKissic put his team up 29 – 27 at halftime. Barcelona reclaimed an advantage shortly but their opponents went up in the mid of the third period. The hosts never trailed for the rest of the match.
Olympiacos qualified for the playoffs
After this result, Olympiacos mathematically secure a spot in the EuroLeague playoffs.
“First of all congratulations to the team, to the players and our fans, for one more amazing night here, because as my assistants told me, we have qualified for the playoffs and this is not a small target”, said coach Bartzokas after the game.
“Beyond the final result, which is happy for us, we think that after the tough loss that we had in Milan, we needed to bounce back playing against one of the most difficult teams to play. So we controlled our emotions, we considered the game possession by possession, although we didn’t start well. We were nervous in the beginning, missing free throws, missing shots, making rushed decisions. In the second quarter, we increased the intensity of our defense. We ended that quarter winning by two. And then we just had to protect our paint, because Barca is really good attacking inside with their tall forwards and centers. And finally, overall, our defense was really solid. Good luck to Barca, they are a big club”.
Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius expected more from his players: “I think we needed to move the ball a little bit better. We needed to hit some shots. Even though in the second half we hit some, we still got lost in some back-door cuts and other little things. Overall, a ball here and there, one made shot here or there, and it could have been a different ballgame.”