Olympiacos overcame the resistance of the fighting Panionios with 30 points by Vezenkov

It was very difficult, but, finally, Olympiacos left Glyfada unscathed!

The “red and whites” found it dark against the (again) very combative Panioniowho was highly competitive throughout the match, but folded in the fourth period, with the Piraeus celebrating the victory with 84-78.

Thus, the “red and white” improved their record to 9-1 in the Stoiximan GBL and go with a good mentality to the upcoming “devil’s week” of the Euroleague, during which they will host in SEF Virtus Bologna (18/12, 21:15) and Alba Berlin (20/12, 21:15). On the other hand, Panionios showed his good face again, since after Panathinaikos AKTOR gave Olympiacos a hard time, but, in the end, he was defeated and fell to 4-6.

Great protagonist for the winners o Vezenkovwho finished the game with 30 points (9/10 2-pointers, 2/3 3-pointers, 6/6 shots) and 9 rebounds, while the Fournierwith 16 points, 2 assists and 2 steals. As for Panionios, they stood out Chalbouris (14p with 3/4 3-pointers), Noko (10p, 9 rib) and You’re a geek (11 points, 4 assists).

The match:

Olympiacos started the game with Walkup, Vildosa, Fournier, Vezenkov and Milutinov, with George Bartzokas not having Fall, Wright, McKissick, Evans and newcomer Mensah at his disposal. On the other hand, Mr Aris Lykogiannis he chose Woolring, Milendijevic, Brown, Davies and Nocco as his starting five.

The match started with consecutive three-pointers from Fournier and Miledijevic with both teams going hand in hand in the score, until o Vezenkov to make 7-9 with a nice floater. The two teams then went nearly three minutes without a field goal, with Vezenkov again fouling to make it 7-12, during which Woolridge suffered a head injury after falling awkwardly to the floor. Panionios went scoreless for 4 minutes on 0/6 2-pointers, before Noko cut it to 9-12. THE Chalbouris equalized with a three-pointer at 14-14, while o Vezenkov he reached double figures early on and reached 13 personal points when he made a three-pointer 16-20 of the first period.

The second quarter started with Gika to hit a 3-pointer in front of the Peters defense for 19-22, while the home team found a rhythm and made an 8-1 run, spending after a long time in front of the score (23-22), thanks to a 3-pointer by Canadian. Papanikolaou answered immediately for 24-26, while Olympiacos improved its defense and made the biggest difference in its favor in the match (+8, 29-37) with consecutive three-pointers from Dorsey and Lorentzakis. In fact, Dorsey reached 10 personal points with another three-pointer (6/11 overall for Olympiacos at that point in the match) for 31-40, while Noko and Brown reduced for 35-40 of the first half. A little earlier, Panionios lost Saloustro, who injured his shoulder and was hospitalized.

The third period started with Olympiacos na enters… fortsatosnot allowing Panionios to score for 3.5 minutes and going on a 7-0 run for his biggest margin of the match (+12, 35-47) and with Vezenkov to reach 20 points with 6/7 two-pointers and 2/2 two-pointers. The home team countered and with consecutive 3-pointers from Ghika and Tsalbouris, they made an 8-2 run and reduced it to 43-49, but Vezenkov continued to dominate, putting Olympiakos back at +9 (43-52) with a foul basket. Gikas made it 46-52 with his new three-pointer and Milutinov scored his first points in the match for 46-54, but at that point the “red and white” lost their concentration and Panionios perfectly took advantage of the opportunity, getting closer to the point (53-54), before Papanikolaou form with two shots it 53-56 of the third period.

With him Fournier yes… warming up, Olympiacos escaped with 55-64 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, while after a foul by Gika in the center of the court, which was given an unsportsmanlike appearance, the home team protested strongly to the referees, Lykogiannis received a technical penalty and the “red and white” were +11 (58-69), before Fournier made it 71-58 with a foul basket. Nevertheless, Panionios came back again, going down 69-77 and 71-79, but Olympiacos did not lose their cool and took the victory with the final 84-78.

The quarters: 16-20, 35-40, 53-56, 78-84

The match statistics

Live of the match from sport-fm.gr