By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
Kostas Sloukas scored 24 points – including a decisive layup with 43 seconds to play – and dished out seven assists as Olympiacos Piraues beat Bayern Munich 84 – 82 at home to register its second straight win in EuroLeague and first home victory after three consecutive losses.
Paul Zipser had the chance to win the game for Bayern but his 3-point attempt at the buzzer went off target. When the final horn sounded, Bayern head coach Andrea Trinchieri and some of his assistants stormed into the court protesting that Sasha Vezenkov fouled Zipser on the 3-pointer.
DJ Seeley hit the triple for the 84 – 82, closing his top performance (26 points on 7-8 threes) with the Bavarian side. Sloukas had previously made the 84 – 79 following a turnover on the inbounds pass by former Olympiacos guard Wade Baldwin. The American player, who was coming off a career-high performance vs. Barcelona, had 12 points on 5-16 shots and five assists but also seven turnovers, including the crucial one with a minute remaining.
Jalen Reynolds added 20 points for Bayern that was missing leading scorer and top performer overall Vladimir Lucic, along with guard Zan Sisko.
Four players scored in double figures for Olympiacos apart from Sloukas. Vezenkov had 13 points and six rebounds, Aaron Harrison and Octavius Ellis dropped 11 points apiece and Vassilis Spanoulis had 10 points. The Reds were minus forward Kostas Papanikolaou and guard Shaq McKissic.
“Probably some special decisions from the talent of the players. Seeley made some amazing shots, very big shots, he kept them in the game. But I think the key for us was that we stopped their creativity. Very important win for us against such a difficult opponent like Bayern. It was the first game of the second part [of the regular season], and we wanted to start with a win,” said Giorgos Bartzokas after the game.
Olympiacos held three nine-point leads early in the fourth period when Spanoulis, Sloukas and Vezenkov had a flurry of 3-pointers. The visiting squad launched a comeback that was capped when Seeley tied the game at 77 with 2:22 to play to make the match a thriller up to the very end.