By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos beat Anadolu Efes 88 – 81 in Piraeus for Round 12 of the EuroLeague regular season to improve its record to 7-5.
This was the second loss in a row for Efes that dropped to 8-4. The game between the fourth (Efes) and fifth (Olympiacos) team in the EuroLeague standings began with a dominant Olympiacos until Efes took over until it all evolved into an intense battle down the stretch.
That was when Axel Toupane – who returned to EuroLeague action after missing four games – emerged big, providing a strong two-way impact for Olympiacos and finishing with 19 points in 21:44 to lead his team to win. Apart from his scoring and precious help with offensive rebounding, the French wing also pulled off some key defenses on the otherwise brilliant Vasilije Micic who finished with a 24 points career-high plus six assists.
“Probably Axel Toupane was the key, who we missed for some time“, said coach David Blatt after the game.
Along with Shane Larkin (20 points), Micic had been the main reason for Efes’ turnaround in the second period following an electric entrance by Olympiacos.
Efes found themselves down by 15 points, 23 – 8 in the first quarter but then unleashed a fierce comeback attempt thanks to the duo of Shane Larkin and Vasilije Micic. They both made short work of Oly’s defenses and propelled their team to erasing their heavy deficit towards gaining a seven-point lead, 66 – 73 in the mid of the fourth period. But that was the moment when Olympiacos reacted.
An 8 – 0 run thanks to buckets courtesy of Vassilis Spanoulis, Giorgos Printezis and Toupane gave pulse back to Olympiacos and the game turned into a thriller. Toupane delivered extra possessions and some crucial jumpers for the Reds and then Janis Strelnieks connected with Zach LeDay for the latter’s slam that made it 83 – 79 with two minutes left.
The hosts proceeded to preserve an advantage and Strelnieks more or less sealed the outcome with a pair of free throws for the 85 – 80.
“The real key to the second half was the fact that our football fans arrived in the gym and gave us an extra push“, joked Blatt referring to the fact that many Olympiacos fans arrived late since they had scheduled also to attend the football game between the Reds and AC Milan for UEFA Europa League.
Apart from Toupane, Nikola Milutinov had 15 points, nine rebounds, and a team-high 24 PIR. Giorgos Printezis added a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Anadolu Efes was missing Rodrigue Beaubois. “His injury disturbed us, we changed our strategy in the last minute and that’s why we had such a terrible start“, said Anadolu Efes coach Ergin Ataman.