Olympiacos “escaped” with a golden victory from Milan!

Withstood the Christmas derby with her Armani and left with a first victory from the Milan Olympiacos!

In an exciting match that was a derby from the beginning to the last second, the “red and whites” finally managed to celebrate the marginal victory with 84-83 for the 18th matchday of the Euroleague!

Thus, the Piraeus, who finished the game with 21/28 two-pointers, 9/29 three-pointers, 15/18 shots, 8 steals and 28 assists for 17 turnovers, took their third consecutive victory in the competition and improved their record in 12-6rising to the top of the standings with Monaco. On the other hand, Armani fell to 9-9 and was left out of the top ten.

Leading for Giorgos Bartzokas’ team are Vezenkov (21p with 5/7 two-pointers and 3/5 two-pointers), Fournier (18pts, 7 assists, 5 steals) and Peters (14p), while for the losers they stood out Mirotic (16p), Shields (15π) and Bolmaro (14 points, 6 assists).

The match:

With the usual five consisting of Walkup, Fournier, Papanikolaou, Vezenkov and Fal, Giorgos Bartzokas started the game, not having at his disposal Milutinov, Larentzaki, Evans and Wright, while Messina chose Mannion, Shields, Bolmaro, Mirotic and LeDay for his starting five.

The match started with the two teams entering “cold” offensively, and with Olympiakos being completely focused on its defenses, but without being able to consistently find solutions on the other side of the floor. THE Manion with a three-pointer he gave the first lead to Armani, while Fal and Vezenkov they put Olympiakos ahead with 6-5, o LeDay with a three-pointer he made it 8-6, while a little later Vezenkov answered in the same way for 10-9. With Fournier playing big defense and dishing out back-to-back assists (4 steals and 3 final passes in the first quarter), Olympiacos first tied the game at 15-15 and then took a 19-17 lead as the first period ended with the two teams in a tie 19-19.

The second period started badly for Olympiakos, with the home team going on a 7-0 run for their biggest lead (+7, 26-19) up to that point in the match, while Vezenkov again provided the solution to the attack of Olympiakos, scoring with a three-pointer for 28-24. THE Kosher continued to hurt Olympiacos, hitting from long range to make it 35-28 (Armani made 5/7 3-pointers at that point), while Olympiacos continued to struggle to find a rhythm offensively, but was good defensively, not allowing Armani to build double digit difference in her favor. After a technical penalty on Bartzokas, the hosts made it 38-32, before Olympiacos went on a 9-2 run, turning the situation around and going into the locker room ahead with 41-40!

The two teams returned from the locker room with Olympiakos leading 43-40 and 45-42, while Bolmaro tied the game at 45-45 with an incredible 3-pointer at the end of the offensive clock, throwing the ball with one hand and to end up in the basket of Piraeus. THE Shields with his own three-pointer he made it 48-45, but at that point o Fournierwho with his three-pointer reduced to a point (49-48) and then stole before Fal put the “red and whites” in front again (49-50). THE Vezenkov with his big three-pointer he reached 21 and exceeded 2,500 points in the Euroleague for 51-53, while with Fournier as the leader, who scored in every way reaching 16 points along with 6 assists, Olympiacos closed the third period being at + 4 (64-60)!

The fourth quarter started with Dimitrievich to cut within a point (63-64) for Armani with his three-pointer, while Ritchie also hit from long range, for 66-65, before Vildosa with a big three-pointer of his own at the end of the attack time, he put Olympiakos back to +4 (66-70)! In fact, the Piraeus escaped with +6 (74-68 and 77-71) entering the “final stretch” of the match, but the Mirotic with a basket and foul kept Armani alive, reducing to 74-77, before o Peters hits a big three-pointer for 80-74! Shields made a foul basket of his own to cut it to 78-82, but missed the shot, but Bolmaro’s 3-pointer and Mirotic made it 83-84 in the final minute, Vildosa missed a three-pointer with 20” left, but in Armani’s final attack, Manion made a wrong pass, with Olympiakos finally celebrating the important victory!

The quarters: 19-19, 40-41, 60-64, 83-84

The match statistics

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