Legendary “conquest” of Barcelona with McKissick-Papanikolou and Olympiacos goes to Berlin!

Although he played with his back to the… wall, chasing for 35 minutes inside Barcelona, ​​the McKissick and Papanicolaou they came forward in the last minutes and pushed him Olympic in victory (63-59) on her Barcelonafor the second break in a row (3-2) and the qualification for the Berlin Final Four!

Offensively, the “red and whites” may not have played their best game, but their defense kept them from the start and so the Catalans couldn’t escape above +9 (18-9).

McKissick gave the Piraeus the first lead (47-49) in the match, at 35′with Abrines temporarily equalizing (49-49), but they follow big three-pointers from the American and Papanikolaou for +8 (49-57), at 37′. In the remaining time Barzoka’s players made some easy mistakes giving the Catalans the opportunity to return to three points (54-57), at 1:12, but the “red and white” were cool from the line at the end and got the big pink card .

The first scorer for Olympiakos was McKissick with 12 points and was followed by the also excellent Papanikolaou with 11 p. Shocking appearance from him too Milutinov with 10p. and 10 rebounds.

Among the Catalans, he stood out Laprovitola with 17 p.

The match

Olympiacos started with Fal, Peters, Papanikolaou, Kanan and Walkap. Nervous and ill-advised start from the “red and whites”, who could not score with anything from the tough defense of Barcelona, ​​while at the same time they also made mistakes. On the other hand, Laprovitola came in “hot” for the Catalans, making the score 8-2 in the first six minutes. With the entry of Milutinov, Petrusev and Williams-Goss, Piraeus became more efficient in attack, controlling rebounds, but the home team maintained their lead (12-9) until the end of the first period.

Tragic start from Olympiakos in the second quarter as well, with mistakes and lost rebounds returning and thus Hernangomet pushing Barcelona on a 6-0 run, for +9 (18-9), at 12′. Williams-Goss and Milutinov “unstuck” the Piraeus, with the hosts finding baskets in the open field and from offensive rebounds, for +8 (25-17), at 16′. With Peters also helping offensively, Barzoka’s team got closer to the basket (25-23) and with the defenses having the first say in the last minutes the score of the first half was 27-25.

With Kanan and Petrusev, Olympiacos brought the match to a point (31-30), at the beginning of the second half. Barcelona responded with a 7-0 run by Laprovitola and Abrines, for +8 (38-30), in the 24th minute. The reaction of the “red and white” came from Petrusev, who brought the match to the basket (38-36), in the 26th minute. Parker again sent the hosts to +4 (40-36), but the Piraeus in the last minutes hardened their defense and thanks to a shot by Kanan and a three-pointer by Papanikolaou, they closed the third period in a tie (40-40).

Tragic also at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Olympiacos with Hernangomet and Laprovitola sending Barcelona to +5 (47-42), in the first three minutes. Then, the “red and white” reacted with their defense, controlling the rebounds and Milutinov and McKissick, who ran a 7-0 run, for the lead (47-49), in the 35th minute. Abrines temporarily equalized (49-49), to be followed by huge shots from McKissick and Papanikolaou, for an 8-0 run by the Piraeus and +8 (49-57), at 37′. Cheap mistakes from Barzoka’s players followed and Barcelona reduced to three points (54-57), with McKissick making the steal and Milutinov nailing for +5 (54-59), at 17.5” before expiry. Abrines reduced by two points (56-59), with Kanan making 2/2 from the line, Papanikolaou stealing the ball and he also making 2/2, at 7” and basically giving the victory to Olympiakos with the final 59-63!

The quarters: 12-9, 27-25, 40-40, 59-63

See the match statistics here

Watch the film of the match here