Olympiacos comfortably ups the lead to 2-1!

Olympiacos “dismantled” Panathinaikos in a packed SEF 75-52 and now leads the finals’ series for the Basket League 2-1.

With Michalis Lountzis leading the way, our team began with a 7-0 run, however, the ‘greens’ showed an immediate reaction. They pressed in defense, found score from the perimeter and closed the first quarter leading by one (18-19). When Shaquielle McKissic and Giannoulis Larentzakis entered the rotation, they gave extra energy to our team on both ends of the court, Sloukas orchestrated the team’s game and Olympiacos, running a partial 18-2 got to lead by 15p. (36-21) at 17’. Nevertheless, the turnovers the ‘red & whites’ were making and the their bad decisions when attacking the basket, allowed Panathinaikos to run a partial 7-0 and close in to 8p. (36-28) at 20’.

Kostas Papanikolaou got injured (he felt his calf muscles tightening) which forced Giorgos Bartzokas to present an unusual line-up in the second half, since he put on the floor Sasha Vezenkov and Alec Peters together. Nevertheless, everything worked out perfectly… With good defense, Moustapha Fall dominating the pot and Kostas Sloukas scoring and dishing assists, Olympiacos skyrocketed the difference to +17 (57-40 at 29’). They didn’t stop there also… Playing a superb defensive game and with pluralism in the offense, our team increased the distance to 25p. (70-45) at 37’ and gave the game a procedural feel really early in it.

The quarters: 18-19, 36-28, 57-41, 75-52.