A big win in Barcelona!

An ideal start for Olympiacos, who beat Barcelona on the road 80-70 for the Euroleague premiere.

With two back to back threes, the ‘red & white’ got a +2 head start (4-6) at 3’, but then their percentages dropped dramatically. That’s exactly what Barcelona preyed upon and combined with their dominating rebounding, the blaugrana set the tempo and turned the situation in their favor (16-10 at 7’).

Olympiacos closed the first quarter at -3 (16-13), despite the fact that they had no assists during that time. However, what followed was totally different … With a solid defensive game, Sasha Vezenkov and Alec Peters ‘firing’ from the perimeter and Kostas Sloukas dishing back to back assists, our team gradually regained control (25-30 at 17’) and closed the first half at +6 (28-34).

The blaugrana hit from the three point line and running a partial 11-4 got ahead by one (39-38), turning the game into a derby up until 27’ (47-46). However, a consistent superb defense and with Kostas Sloukas, Joel Bolomboy and Isaiah Canaan in the lead, Olympiacos ran a partial 11-0 and succeeded to get a +10 margin for the first time in the game (45-57 at 29’).

With a goal-foul, Bolomboy sent the difference to +11 (49-60), but the hosts refused to back down. They put pressure in the back court, led the ‘red & white’ to turnovers and closed in to 3p. (57-60 at 33’). Somewhere at that point though, Giannoulis Larentzakis made the game a personal business. For every attempt of the Spanish team to catch up, the international guard would be responding with threes that were daggers in the heart of the hosts’ attempt. He scored a total of 4, all in the last six minutes of the game, leading our team safely to the win. The final score was written by Sasha Vezenkov at the buzzer.

The quarters: 16-13, 28-34, 49-57, 70-80.

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