By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
ALBA Berlin made things interesting but couldn’t shock Olympiacos.
The Greeks got the 100-92 road win and keep for the moment the first place of the standings (23-10), while Fenerbahce is second (22-11) and Panathinaikos is third (21-12).
The worst-case scenario for Olympiacos is a tie with Fenerbahce, which would push him to second place in the final regular-season standings.
With 33 points, Alec Peters was the top scorer of Olympiacos, while Nigel Williams-Goss scored 22 and Sasha Vezenkov added 18.
ALBA got 19 points from Yanni Wetzell, and the duo of Gabriele Procida and Matt Thomas added 12 points each.
Moustapha Fall, Evan Fournier, Luca Vildoza, Nikola Milutinov, and Thomas Walkup were missing for Olympiacos, while Keenan Evans, who was on the roster after missing almost one year of action due to injury, wasn’t used.
“I decided to give him one more week of practices with the team”, explained after the game coach Giorgos Bartzokas. It was also revealed that captain Kostas Papanikolaou played in this game, despite losing his grandfather one day before the contest and keeping it secret from the rest of the team.
A comeback and a thriller
Olympiacos set the tone early, leading 36-17 after the first period, and jumped to a 54-34 lead in the second.
ALBA tried to react and made it a 12-point game (56-44), however, Olympiacos reacted swiftly with five straight points of Giannoulis Larentzakis (61-44), and the halftime score was 61-46 with Will McDowell-White scoring his first bucket of the game.
ALBA managed to trim the lead to 10 points (63-53) starting the third period, but Olympiacos pushed the lead back to 18 (75-57). The Reds believed that the game had ended prematurely, and ALBA turned things around again, trailing by seven points (80-73).
With eight unanswered points in the first plays of the fourth quarter, ALBA got the 81-80 lead, completing a 24-5 run. Olympiacos swiftly got the lead back (86-81). Matt Thomas tied the score again at 86 with five minutes left and then gave the hosts an 88-86 lead.
The game turned into a dogfight, and Olympiacos entered the last minute up by two (92-90). Thomas missed, Williams-Goss scored a big bucket (94-90), and the game was practically over.
Photo credit: EuroLeague