“Train” Olympiacos passed the home of PAOK with 30 points!

He doesn’t understand either from fatigue or from seats this year Olympic!

A few 24 hours after the completion of a demanding “devil’s week” in Euroleague and having the absences of Fournier, Dorsey, Mitrou-Long and McKissick (they are off the list in Greece), his team Giorgos Bartzokas presented an excellent face in Thessaloniki, prevailing with the improbable 90-60 over PAOK in Pylaia for the 7th matchday of the Stoiximan GBL!

From the very beginning of the match, the “red and white” they completely dominated at both ends of the floor and by constantly “hitting” the opponent’s racket (30/43 two-pointers) they managed to reach the their greatest victory in history at the home of the “doubleheader of the north”, remaining in 2nd place in the standings with a record of 6-1. Indicative of the image of the match was that the Piraeus team even touched the +42 (35-77) towards the end of the third period.

Leading for the winners was Sasha Vezenkov with 20 points and 8 rebounds, all in the first half, after a push he received just before the break he was benched for the rest of the match as a precaution. Closely followed by Papanikolaou (15 p.), Wright (13p., 8r.) and Peters (10p., 6r.), with the 17-year-old George Bernele to count 2 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist in his professional debut!

For PAOK, which fell at 3-4, Katsivelis (11 points), Reynolds (10 points) and Henderson (10 points) stood out.

The match:

THE Olympic started the game with Vezenkov’s basket off a beautiful assist by Fal (0-2), with Kreuzer then hitting two 3-pointers in consecutive attacks for the 6-4 in favor of PAOK in the 2nd minute. The very good and aggressive defense of the “red and whites”, however, not only “locked” the home team offensively, but allowed its players Giorgos Bartzokas to find easy points in the open field. With the baskets of Vezenkov, Fal, Papanikolaou and Walkap’s three-pointer, Piraeus made 15-6 in 6′with PAOK finding a score after 4 minutes (8-15). “hitting” constantly through the racket (12/15 two-pointers in the quarter) and with Vezenkov in terrific form with 16 points in the period, the visitors continued to easily find their way to the “black and white” basket, thus closing the quarter at +16 for 29-13.

The same… project was repeated in second periodwith Olympiakos still playing fast basketball with immediate ball circulation and clear targeting on the “drawing board”. Two-pointers by Peters, Wright and Lorentzaki on the one hand and three-pointers by Henderson and Bartley on the other made it 19-33 in the 13th minute, before the visitors went on a 9-0 run to blow away the difference at +23 and 19-42 three minutes later. Reynolds and Katsivelis put a “brake” on the offensive dystopia of the “doubleheader of the north” (24-42), with the very good Wright and Peters and Sasha increasing the difference again over 20 (26-50) at 19′. In fact, with a terrible three-pointer by Vildosa just ahead of the center, the “red and white” went to the locker room with the maximum value of the difference and the 53-26 closing the half with 20/26 two points and overall 16 assists!

Despite the fact that the Vezenkov did not play in the second half due to a small problem, with the technical staff of Piraeus deciding to protect him, Olympiacos entered the third quarter with an acquired speed. The protagonist at the beginning of the period was Papanikolaouwith the visiting captain scoring 8 of his team’s first 10 points for +35 and 28-63 in the 23rd minute. Henderson’s three-pointer and Katsiveli’s two-pointer temporarily gave the Chancellor’s team an offensive breath (33-65), before Walkup, Peters and Papanikolaou shot the difference for the first time at +42 (35-77) at 28′. In the remaining time of the period, the Thessalonians managed with a quick 8-0 run as a result of the good defense, to collect the difference for the 43-77 of the quarter.

Somehow, the fourth and final period acquired a procedural character, since the case of victory had been decided early on. As much as Giorgos Bartzokas didn’t want it, logic prevailed, as his team relaxed in the last quarter. As a result, PAOK, who did not stop fighting for a minute in order to reduce the score in the match, managed to gnaw the difference thanks mainly to Reynolds’ baskets. The two coaches threw in their finale two 17-year-olds, with Panagiotis Lefa for PAOK and Giorgos Burnele for Olympiakos to take playing time, with the final horn of the match finding Olympiakos the winner with score 90-60.

The quarters: 13-29, 26-53, 43-77, 60-90.

See here the statistics of the match.