Almost ‘touched’ the trophy, but was not able to make it theirs
Up until 3.2’’ before the buzzer, Olympiacos was almost holding the Trophy of the European Champion. However, an impossible shot by Sergio Llull ‘stole’ it from their hands.
Despite the fouls of their big guys that came early into the game, Olympiacos succeeded in controlling the rhythm and with Canaan and Vezenkov taking center stage, they built a 10p. lead (22-12) at8’. The Spanish team reacted, striking from the perimeter and taking advantage of mistakes and bad choices the ‘red & whites’ were making, they got ahead 29-31 at 14’. From that point on, the two teams were constantly taking turns to leading the game, while at the end of the first half the score was tied 45-45.
Once again with Canaan and Vezenkov spearheading the offence, the ‘red & whites’ created a narrow 5p. lead (57-52 at 25’) and finally closed the 3rd quarter at +4 (63-59). A three by Vezenkov marked a +7 lead (68-61), while, despite Real’s success from the perimeter, they got to consistently maintain the lead 78-72 up until 38’. Somewhere there though, they suffered an offensive black-out, which resulted in the team not scoring a single point till the end! On the contrary, the Spanish team found solutions to tackle the ‘red & whites’ defense and finally, with two big shots (the last one under asphyxiating pressure), by Fernandez and Sergio, they got ahead, with the last shot taking place only 3.2’’ before the end. Kostas Sloukas tried to give the crown to his team with a shot in the last play of the game, but it not go in.
The quarters: 24-17, 45-45, 63-59, 78-79
OLYMPIACOS
REAL M.
