A defeat in Vitoria
Olympiacos was far removed from his usual standards and lost in Vitoria to Baskonia 80-69 for the 21st round of the Euroleague.
The hosts 'struck' from the perimeter and gained a 5-point lead (11-6) at 6'. However, Isaiah Canaan took upon himself to correct the situation and with 4/4 triples, reversed the course of the game (14-17) at 10'. With 4 back-to-back points by Filip Petrusev, the 'red & whites' got to +7 (14-21) at 11', but, they then lost cohesion in the offense and allowed Baskonia -that was once again firing away from the perimeter - to reply with a partial 17-3 and gain a +7 lead for themselves (31-24). At that point, our team's reflexes got into gear... The team played pressing defesne, passed the ball in the post and with a partial 8-2 closed in to one point (33-32), at the end of the first quarter.
In the second half though, apart from the offence, nothing was working right, resulting in Baskonia setting their tempo, running the fast-break and raising the difference to 14 points (63-49) at 31'. The 'red & whites' seemed to be responding with a partial 4-0 with Fall (63-53), however, the Basques put pressure in the back court, continued forcing Olympiacos to terrible choices when attacking, when at the same time, they were comfortably 'striking' inside the post, as well as from the perimeter. The result was that they completely controlled the tempo (80-64) and got an easy win.
With about 11.8'' for the 1st quarter to end, Alec Peters and Kostas Papanikolaou collided on air trying to grab a rebound, resulting in the former getting injured on the nose. The American forward went to locker rooms, however, the injury proved to be not serious and he returned in the bench about 2' before the end of the first half.
Luke Sikma was not included in the roster.
The Presidents of Olympiacos BC, Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos, as well as the Vice President of Olympiacos BC, Giorgos Skindylias watched the game in Vitoria in support of our team.
The quarters: 14-17, 33-32, 59-49, 80-69.
BASKONIA
OLYMPIACOS
