Finally… Legend, swept Real!

He reminded… Legend and returned to positive results with his biggest “weapon” the defense o Olympic!

The “red and whites” found their good selves again and responded to their very difficult test with the highest quality Real Madridwhich they defeated with 79-69 and returned to positive results after their successive defeats against Efes, Bayern Munich and Panathinaikos.

Thus, the Piraeus, who put a lot of energy into their defenses, collected 14 (!) offensive rebounds against only 4 of their opponents and dished out 24 assists, improved their record to 3-3 after 6 matches in this year’s Euroleague, gaining momentum before hosting Barcelona (1/11) in the continuation of the “devil’s week”.

Leading for Olympiakos are Vezenkov (23 points, 8 rebounds), McKissick (15 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals) and Walkup (12 points, 4 assists), while for Real they stood out Hezonia (15 p.), Dec (12p.) and Campacho (7 points, 10 assists).

The match:

Olympiakos started the match with Walkup, Fournier, Papanikolaou, Vezenkov and Fal, with Giorgos Bartzokas leaving Larentzakis out of the starting XI and having Williams-Goss again at his disposal, while Campazzo, Deck, Moussa, Hezonia and Ibaka formed Real’s starting five, which was missing the injured Garouba and Feliz.

The matchup started with Fournier being “hot”scoring 5 of Olympiakos’ first 7 points, for 7-5, while Ibaka and Deck were the ones who pulled the … paddle offensively for Real in the first minutes, for 11-12. Wright and Vezenkov put Olympiakos at +5 (17-12), but then the “red and whites” took nervousness in their attacks, giving Real the right to build a 9-0 run, closing the first period more accurately and in front with 21-17.

Yule, with consecutive points from a three-pointer and a shot, made it 19-25 at the beginning of the second quarter, McKissick cut it to 22-25 with his own three-pointer, while the visitors maintained the small difference in their favor until the middle of the second period, escaping with 27-34, thanks to a three-pointer by Ediage (6/13 from long range at that point in the match for the “queen”). Olympiacos found a rhythm through consecutive good defenses, he did not receive a single point in the last 5 minutes of the period, it went on a 10-0 run and went to the locker room ahead (36-34), thanks to two accurate shots by McKissick.

The third period started with Vezenkov making it 13 to make it 38-35, but Real continued to find solutions offensively thanks to their three-pointers and the creation of Campacho. Deck hit a layup for 46-50, while Hezonia hit a 3-pointer and took advantage of a Walkup error, putting Real up +9 for the first time (46-55). Olympiacos continued to struggle in attack, but through their defense they found some easy pointsgoing down for 56-59 in the third period and although it was obvious that he was showing a lot of nervousness in his game.

Olympiacos entered… biting in his defense at the start of the fourth quarter, he didn’t concede a basket in the first 3 minutes and went on an 18-4 run to take a 64-59 lead thanks to consecutive points by the “hot” McKissick! Real closed to 67-65 on Campacho’s 3-pointer, but Olympiacos kept playing excellent defensesescaping 75-67 thanks to back-to-back big baskets by Vezenkov and finally celebrating the great victory with 79-69!

The quarters: 17-21, 36-34, 56-59, 79-69

The match statistics

The live of the match from sport-fm.gr