Olympiacos beat Alba with a steel defense and closed 2023 with a positive sign!

Olympic from the old “strangled” her Alba in Berlin and closed in the most ideal way in 2023!

Having an amazing second half and playing bone-crushing defensethe “red and white” overturned the match and left the “Mercedes Benz Arena” with the victory and the pink match sheet with an impressive 94-67 for the 17th matchday of the Euroleague!

With four players in double-digit points and two more who reached ten, the Piraeus celebrated their ninth victory in this year’s competition and second in a row, thus climbing to the 8th place in the standings with a record of 9-8 and closing the first round with a positive sign of the organization!

The first scorer for Giorgos Bartzokas’ team was Alec Peters, with the American forward finishing the match with 23 points (7/7 two-pointers, 2/4 three-pointers), 7 rebounds and 27 points in the evaluation system. He was also excellent Mustafa Fal with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 25 rating points, with Williams-Goss and Lorentzakis to add 13 and 10 points respectively.

For Alba who fought back in the first half, this was the 14th defeat in this season, thus remaining in the penultimate position of the standings. The first scorer for the Germans was Matt Thomas with 15 points.

The match:

THE Olympic started the game with Walkup, Caanan, Papanikolaou, Peters and Fall, while Alba Berlin it had in its starting five Spaniolo, Thomas, Wenzel, Bean and Thiman. The “red and white” entered the match quite well and with their captain finding easy points, they led 8-7 in the 3rd minute. With Mustafa Fal taking the baton and dominating the racket, the visitors remained in front of the score (12-14) until the 6th minute. But somewhere there, taking advantage of Olympiakos’ mediocre to poor peripheral defense, Alba “bombarded” the opponent’s basket with three-pointers by Delow, Thiman and Brown, passing the score and ending the quarter at +6 for 25-19.

THE second period it started with another three-pointer by Sterling Brown for 28-19 in favor of the home team, at the time when Olympiacos was struggling to connect with the opponent’s basket. It is indicative that the first points of Giorgos Bartzokas’ team came from shots by Larentzakis, 3.5 minutes after the start of the quarter. The Germans continued to succeed … the three-pointers rained down, with Thomas and Maticek for the first time shooting the difference to +11 for 34-23 and shortly after at 36-25 at 15′.

From that point on, Olympiacos “transformed” for the better! By dramatically improving his defensive performance and forcing Alba to make mistakes, the “red and whites” found easy baskets in surprise and transition. With one quick 8-0 run by Larentzakis, Gos and Sikma, reduced to three (36-33) at 17′. Tomas and Spagnolo did it 40-33 a little later, with the Greek team responding with back-to-back goals triples by Larentzakis and Gos for 40-39! In the end, the Germans succeeded and went to the locker room with one in their favor +3 for 43-40 at halftime.

The scene was completely different in third quarterwhere the Piraeus team entered the court determined to clear the match, playing amazing basketball that remember last year’s dream season! With a bone-crushing defense and tremendous energy at both ends of the field, Giorgos Bartzokas’ team completely dominated the “Mercedes Benz Arena”, closing the period with the impressive partial score 27-8!

Holding Alba to just two points – and those from Thiman’s shots – for almost 5.5 minutes (!), Olympiacos managed not only to overturn the score, but also to take the lead with +11 for 56-45, with Caanan, Fal and Peters at the forefront! The Germans responded temporarily with two three-pointers by Matt Thomas for 58-51, however, the visitors, with Caanan and Peters again finding big shots, closed the quarter at +16 and 67-51!

Despite the large and admittedly safe difference that the Piraeus had “built”, the players of Giorgos Bartzokas did not relax for a moment in the fourth and final period. On the contrary, they continued to bring out energy and mood on the floor, but also nice combinations in attack. In connection with the disappointment of the Germans as well, Olympiacos succeeded and sent the difference over 20-25 points, even reaching +29 just before the final, finally celebrating the 4th double of this season with the final 94-67!

The quarters: 25-19, 43-40, 51-67, 67-94.

See the match statistics.



Watch the match live here.