«Neofytos Chandriotis»: Olympiacos – Zalgiris 75-72

Olympiacos bested Zalgiris 75-72 and will be playing against Maccabi Tel Aviv tomorrow (23/09, 18:00 CET), to claim first place of the “Neofytos Chandriotis” tournament.

The ‘red & whites’ were leading 6 – 2 at the beginning of the game, but the Lithuanians put pressure in the back court, found scoring from the perimeter and turned the tables (8 – 10 at 8’). Zalgiris was at +7 by 13’ (14 – 21), however, Olympiacos reacted swiftly. They got to strike from the three point line and got once again ahead in the score (221 – 21 at 15’). With Luke Sikma offering substantial solutions for the offense, our team widened the distance to 6p. (34 – 28), but the Lithuanian team was anything but willing to give up.

They closed in 34 – 30 by the end of the first half, got to tie the game 44 – 44 and turned it into a derby all over again. Leaning on the good scoring Alec Peters was providing from the long range, Olympiacos tried to set the tempo (58 – 53 at 32’), however, Zalgiris took advantage of the turnovers the ‘red & whites’ were making, found scoring and got ahead again (65 – 67 at 36’). Larentzakis’ ran a personal 5-0, putting Olympiacos in the driver’s seat (70 – 67 at 37’), Zalgiris found score from the perimeter for yet another time and got a 2 point lead at 39’ (70 – 72). However, playing good defense and running a partial 5 – 0 with Alec Peters and Goss, our team got the win.  

* Shaquielle McKissic and Moustapha Fall did not play.

The quarters: 14-15, 34-30, 55-54, 75-72.

OLYMPIACOS (Bartzokas): Walkup 3 (5 as., 2st. ), Canaan 4, Papanikolaou 9 (1 3p. , 4 as.), Peters 19 (3 3p., 8 reb.), Milutinov 11 (12 reb., 3 st., 2 bl.), Lountzis 4, Larentzakis 12 (3 3p., 3 st.), Sikma 8, Tanoulis, Williams-Goss 5 (1 ep., 4 as.).

ZALGIRIS (Maksvytis): Evans 11 (1), Lekavicius 2,  7, Smits 2, Ulanovas 10 (1 ), Mitrou-Long 12 (2), Giedraitis, Birutis 5, Dimsa 8 (2), Lavrinovicius 2, Manek 9 (3), Butkevicius 4.