Olympiacos achieved the miracle, but Paris continued its fairy tale

He “touched” the epic upset, but ultimately paid for the poor image he presented in the first three periods and was defeated by Paris Olympiacos in the “hot” SEF.

The “red and whites” appeared below the occasion for three periods and entered the fourth period trailing by 20 points (60-80), being very misguided and trapped in the frenetic pace of the hosts, but they found an epic counterattack in the last quarter, playing excellent defenses and going ahead with 82-80, after an improbable streak 22-0! However, Paris found the solutions again in the “final stretch”, eventually taking the victory with 96-90 and forcing Olympiakos to their first home defeat in this year’s Euroleague.

Thus, the French, who dominated for 35 minutes, were very accurate and finished the match with 15 offensive rebounds, continue their… fairytale run in this year’s EuroLeague, celebrating their tenth consecutive victory and remaining alone at the top of the standings with 11-3 record, while Olympiacos fell to 9-5 and is now tied for third place with Monaco and Bayern.

Leaders for the “red and whites”, who for the next matchday will face Red Star in Belgrade, were Fournier (25p with 3/4 threes, 4 assists and 4 steals) and Vezenkov (18 points, 5 rebounds), while for the winners, they stood out in another game Shorts (21pts, 8 assists) and Hifi (20p).

The match:



Giorgos Bartzokas started the match with Walkup, Vildosa, Fournier, Vezenkov and Milutinov, who did not have Fall, Wright and Evans available, while Tiago Splitter of the “armored” Paris, chose for his starting five, Shorts, Ward, Ouattara, Yantunen, and Hayes.

“Cold” at the start of the match, Olympiacos failed to score in the first 2:20, giving Paris the right to take a 4-0 lead with Shorts and Haze. Milutinov scored the first points for the Reds, who struggled offensively in the first few minutes, while Paris led 7-2 and 10-5 thanks to a 3-pointer by Heaphy.

At that point, Olympiacos found a rhythm through its improvement in defense and hit its opponent with consecutive surprises, while Fournier tied the score at 13-13 with a three-pointer and a foul! The two teams went hand-in-hand on the score until the end of the first period, with Vezenkov reaching his 8 personal points early and with Peters hitting a buzzer-beater floater, for 21-21.

The second quarter began with the … demon Shorts putting Paris in front again and Goss cutting it to 23-25 ​​with an acrobatic foul basket, before Heaphy made it 23-27 and Shorts hit a three-pointer that they were given to him after a challenge by Splitter, putting the visitors for the first time at +7 (23-30). Olympiacos then again played back-to-back flawless defenses, with Goss, Vildosa and Peters scoring to bring the match back to the point (31-32), but there the “red and whites” wasted consecutive opportunities to take the lead, after Goss and Papanikolaou missed seemingly easy layups.

Heaphy made it 31-36 with a layup, McKissick answered with a foul basket but missed the layup before Dorsey tied it with a big 3-pointer to make it 36-36. Lo answered immediately and in the same way for 36-39, while Paris continued to give… frenzied pace to the match and score with her consecutive surprises, escaping again with 38-43. Heaphy made it 40-46 with a 3-pointer, Ouattara made a layup to make it 41-48 and Shorts made a shot to put Paris up 8 (41-49), while Walkup hit a 3-pointer for his first points. on the night and with 3 seconds left in the second period, making it 44-49 in the first half time.

Olympiacos did not start well in the second half of the match, allowing Paris to continue to find points from their surprise attacks, and with Shorts leading their attack, they got away with 47-55before Heaphy stole the ball out of Vezenkov’s hands to give them a double-digit lead for the first time in the match (47-57).

The Reds scored just three points from shots in the first 4.5 minutes of the third period, allowing Paris to pull away 47-62 thanks to a 3-pointer by Malcolm, while Heaphy hit a three-pointer to make it 49-65. . McKissick cut it to 52-65 by scoring Olympiacos’ first field goal of the third period with 4:09 on the clock as Olympiacos continued to miss (4-of-14 3-pointers) while its opponent consistently found ways to “hurt” him, keeping the difference in her favor at double-digit levels (56-69). The third period ended with Olympiakos having scored only 11 points and with 8 of them coming from shots, while Paris entered the “final stretch” of the match ahead with 73-60.

Olympiacos continued to be misguided at the start of the fourth period as well, going without a basket for 3.5 minutes and allowing Paris to shoot the difference in their favor to +20 (60-80). At that point in the game and with just over 5 minutes left in the final, Fournier’s 3-pointer made it 63-80 and… marked the epic comeback, with the home team dramatically improving their defense and building an improbable streak 22-0 to go ahead with 82-80!

However, in the “final stretch” of the match, Heaphy hit a big three-pointer, for 82-83 with her first basket after 5 minutes of the game, Shorts also made a three-pointer for 82-86, while Wezenkov and Goss tied again (86-86). With 40” left, Vezenkov and Peters missed an offensive rebound through their hands and Law made a huge 3-pointer to make it 86-89 with 17” left, Fournier cut it to 90 with a 3-pointer of his own. -91, but the time was not enough and Olympiacos was finally defeated by 90-96.

The quarters: 21-21, 44-49, 60-73, 90-96

The match statistics

Live of the match from sport-fm.gr