By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Injury-plagued Olympiacos defeated visiting LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne with a 77-68 victory for Round 25 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague to improve to an 11-14 record in the standings.
Sasha Vezenkov led Giorgos Bartzokas’ 9-man squad with a team-high performance of 15 points, seven rebounds, while Giorgos Printezis contributed 11 points, five assists, and three rebounds.
Despite the victory, the Reds saw Nikola Milutinov going down before the end of the first half with what seemed to be a twist in his ankle. At the same time, he will undergo medicals for the evaluation of his condition on Thursday night.
Olympiacos still standing
Missing Milutinov after a significant contribution by the Serbian big man in the first half (9 points) made things tougher for Olympiacos despite leading 43-33 after 20 minutes. ASVEL started to trim the deficit at the end of the third period, though they couldn’t complete a comeback, with Olympiacos leading 61-50 after 30′. Still, the hosts saw Wade Baldwin (11 points) and Octavius Ellis (13) stepping up in the final quarter, to exceed their team’s advantage en route to a much-needed victory.
Youngster Alexandros Nikolaidis was also used in Bartzokas’ rotation. At the same time, he hit his first EuroLeague basket 4 minutes into the second period, exiting the game with six points, five rebounds and three steals against opponents like NBA draft prospect Theo Maledon in front of the assistant GM of the Warriors Mike Dunleavy who was watching the game live.
“I am feeling good. I want to give credit to our players, to our team, and the fans. Bear in mind that we lost Nikola (Milutinov) and already had seven players out. We gave playing time to Nikolaidis, almost 20 minutes, and he is 17 years old. I don’t have anything else to say, but congratulations to the players”, commented Bartzokas after the game.
Vezenkov added: “It was a very tough game. We didn’t have a lot of our key players. We have a lot of injuries and a lot of sick guys, and, first of all, I want to dedicate this win to them. It was a very tough couple of days for us, but we fought. We knew that the players who would play would fight until the end. We put heart and mind, which is very important, and even when we didn’t show great basketball, we played, I think, very good defense for three quarters and win this game.”
Charles Kahudi led the French side with 14 points, while Taylor Jordan tapped 12 points, though the French team is on to a two-game losing streak and falls to a 9-16 record.
Photo: EuroLeague