A loss to Valencia at the SEF

Olympiacos lost in a packed SEF to Valencia 56-63, for the 14th round of the Euroleague. Our team played without Alec Peters, who is expecting for the birth of his first child.

With good defense and Isaiah Canaan and Kostas Papanikolaou running the offense, the 'red & whites' got to lead 12-5 at 5'. However, somewhere at that point, the team 'switched off'. Consecutive turnovers and bad offensive choices, allowed the Spanish team close in to one point (15-14) at 10'. Giorgos Bartzokas shuffled the deck, but nothing worked for him in the 2nd quarter. Olympiacos' scoring problem became even more accute, when at the same time, Valencia was dominating the rebounds, found target from the long range and got ahead with 10p. (25-35) from trailing by 1. The 26-35 score that marked the end of the first half, was made after Luke Sikma made one of his two free throws, while it's worth noting that for yet one more game, our team was shooting with bad percentages from the free-throws line (4/9). 

The 'red & whites' started the 3rd quarter with a lot of energy, but, despite making good on several defensive plays, they paid the cost for their terrible offensive game and saw the guests upping the difference to +12 (31-34) at 25'. With a 5-0 run by Thomas Walkup, they closed in to 7p. (36-43), however, lost rebounds and off the target shooting, allowed the Spanish team to maintain complete control (38-47 at 30'). Some super aggressive defense and with Nikola Milutinov dominating the post, Olympiacos closed in to 7p. (42-49 at 33'), however, during a scoreless two-minute period for Valencia, they missed back-to-back opportunities to drop the difference even more and they got punished for it. The guests replied with a 4-0 and increased their distance to 11p. (42-53 at 36'). Bartzokas' players did not leave the fight. They continued relying on their defense and with two back-to-back threes (Canaan, Walkup) and 2/2 free throws by McKissic, closed in to 5p. (50-55, 2:40'' before the final buzzer). The difference could have gone even further down, however, a lay-up by Canaan did not count since the refs charged him with an offensive foul and that was when everything ended. Claver made good on a three-points attempt (50-58), Valencia regained its shaken confidence and despite a three-pointer by our captain, the Spanish team left the SEF with the win. 

The quarters: 15-14, 26-35, 38-47, 56-63.

OLYMPIACOS

VALENCIA