A perfect 2/2 in Spain!
Olympiacos won in Madrid, besting Real 96-86 for the 22nd round of the Euroleague and finished the double-game week with a perfect 2/2 score.
Following the road win over Baskonia on Tuesday (102-101), our team 'bent' the Madrilene resistance (96-86) and is now ranking alone at the top.
Olympiacos made a numb start in the game against Mateo's team (11-5, 3'), but quickly found his footing on both ends of the floor and got control of the game. With Evan Fournier spearheading the offense and Kostas Papanikolaou contributing on both defense and offense, our team ran a partial 1-14 and got the lead (12-19, 8'). A 3 pointer by the captain made the score 14-22 a little later, with Real closing in after they took advantage of some bad choices the 'red & white' offense made in the last two minutes and hence the first quarter ended 19-22. Evan Fournier and Shaquielle McKissic scored 4 quick points to give our lead a 7-point span (19-26). Giannoulis Larentzakis and Luca Vildoza were facilitating for Nikola Milutinov with the Serbian center dunking for the 21-28 and again for the 23-31 score, while McKissic struck from the long range for teh 29-36 score (17'). The difference reached double digits (37-47, 28'') with five points by Sasha Vezenkov, with half-time ending at 38-47.
The third quarter began with the guests completely controlling the game with Nigel Williams-Goss stepping up and scoring 8 from the 10 points our team scored in the first four minutes (44-57, 24'). Playing completely focused on defense and methodically striking both from close and long range, Olympiacos reached a +15 lead (46-61, 26'), resisted Real's counter attack and its 6-0 run (52-61, 28') and with a 3-point 'bombardement' by Evan Fournier (3) and one more by Luca Vildoza the difference came to +19 (54-73) by the end of the third quarter. In the last ten minutes of the game, Olympiacos went on controlling the game leading up to +22 (56-78). The hosts tried to react dropping the difference to 17 points (61-78), but Evan Fournier with a difficult three from the corner sent the difference to +20 once again (61-81, 34'). Entering the last five minutes of the game, competitiveness in defense wasn't the same and the Madrilene began 'chipping away' at the score (78-86, 37') attempting their final comeback. Effective defensive plays and managing the final possession, our team got the road win and finished the double game week in Spain with a perfect 2/2 score (86-96).
The quarters: 19-22, 38-47, 54-73, 86-96
