By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos played with fire against Panathinaikos, however, Kostas Sloukas missed at the buzzer, and the Reds got the 76-74 win.
In the last three minutes of the game, the Greens had a 10-2 run, which was not enough, and Olympiacos almost committed suicide.
Still, the hosts survived and remain all alone on top of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with a 22-7 record, while Panathinaikos also remains third at 18-11.
Sasa Vezenkov, with 18 points and nine rebounds, was the top scorer of the winning side. Nigel Williams-Goss added 14 points but ended the night injured on the bench of his team, and Kostas Panathinaikos had 11 points.
“We want titles, we don’t want wins”, said Vezenkov to EuroLeague TV after the game.
“It’s very important that we won against Panathinaikos, but our goal in this team is to go until the end. We have to be focused, be hungry, be together and go get it”, he added.
For Panathinaikos, Kostas Mitoglou scored 18 points, Cedi Osman had 13, and Lorenzo Brown scored 11 points.
Olympiacos in control, Pana
Olympiacos had a great start in the game, building an 18-6 lead after a 15-0 run and closing the first period up by 11 (20-9).
The Reds extended the lead with a four-point play by Vezenkov to 32-15; however, with Panathinaikos hanging around, the halftime score was 38-27.
Olympiacos controlled the tempo, extended the lead to 19 points (58-39), and was the cue for the Greens to react with a 9-0 run (58-48), starting with a three by Lorenzo Brown.
Still, the hosts entered the last period leading by 12 (62-50), while Kendrick Nunn already had four fouls.
Panathinaikos managed to trim the lead to nine (70-61) with five minutes left and then to seven (74-67) after a three by Kostas Mitoglou entering the last three minutes.
The game turned into a dogfight, and with 1.34 left, Mitoglou made it a five-point game (74-69). Moustapha Fall answered with a dunk (76-69), but Nunn with a big three made the score 76-72, and then Mitoglou scored again for Panathinaikos (76-74).
Olympiacos had the ball with 29 seconds left, Milutinov missed, and Sloukas had one last shot. He also missed, and the game was over.