Olympiacos defeated Zalgiris with defense and “double” Milutinov!

With a defense that “bited” in the last minutes and his appetizing comeback Nikola MilutinovThe Olympic defeated 75-72 the Zalgirisat the premiere of the “Neofytos Handriotis” tournament.

The Serbian center accompanied his reappearance with a double-double, having 11 points and 12 rebounds. The first scorer of the “red and white” was Alec Peters with 19 p. and 8 rebounds, while a good performance from Giannouli Larentzakis with 12 p.

Among the Lithuanians, they stood out Naz Mitrou-Long and Keenan Evans with 12 p. and 11 p.m. respectively.

Next friendly for Olympiakos against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Saturday (23/9, 19:00)while Zalgiris faces Red Star (23/9, 16:45).

The match

Olympiacos started with Milutinov, Peters, Papanikolaou, Kanan and Walkap. Both missed in the first four minutes, with the “red and white” at +4 (6-2). Then, the pace of the match picked up with Piraeus leading (11-10) thanks to Peters, until the 7th minute. From that point on, mistakes by Barzokas players allowed Zalgiris to take the lead and close with a 15-14 advantage.

The image of Olympiakos was the same at the beginning of the second quarter, with mistakes giving Zalgiris the opportunity to escape to +7 (14-21), at 12′. Then, the “red and white” circulated the ball well and with Papanikolaou and Sikma went ahead (22-21), with Evans equalizing (26-26), at 16′. From that point on, the Piraeus took control through their defense and with the protagonists of Sikma and Papanikolaou offensively they went to +6 (34-28), with Evans going 2/2 from the shooting line and makes the first half 34-30.

With their peripheral shots, Zalgiris equalized (38-38) at the beginning of the second half, with Olympiacos responding with a 4-0 run (42-38), at 23′. Mitrou-Long tied the match again (46-46). Afterwards, the match became a derby, with the two teams going hand in hand and the Piraeus team closing in front in the third period with the smallest difference (55-54).

Although Peters was “hot” for Olympiakos, their peripheral defense had problems and so Dimsa and Ulanovas put Zalgiris ahead (65-67), in the 35th minute. The “red and white” responded with a 5-0 run by Larentzakis (70-65), with the Lithuanians reacting and taking the lead (70-72), in the 38th minute. Barzoka’s players responded with repeated good defenses and a basket by Peters and 2/2 free throws by Williams-Goss, for +3 (75-72), with 13.4” before the end. In the last attack, Evans and Mitrou-Long were off target and thus Olympiacos got the victory.

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

See the match statistics here

Watch the film of the match here