By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Shaq McKissic scored 20 points and Sasha Vezenkov added 17 points plus five rebounds as Olympiacos Piraeus defeated Crvena Zvezda 94 – 79 at home to snap a historically bad seven-game losing streak.
Olympiacos, now 12 – 16, was looking to bounce back after a rough period and consecutive losses that resulted into them having minimal to zero chances for the playoffs. Crvena Zvezda had been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention weeks ago.
“It feels good. I can probably get some sleep tonight,” McKissic said on his team’s victory. “We broke a streak. It feels a lot better I thought it would for sure.” Apart from getting the win, Olympiacos had team legend Giorgos Printezis (six points) becoming the EuroLeague all-time leader in 2-point baskets. He passed former Real Madrid and Barcelona center Ante Tomic.
It was Olympiacos who started the game in a dominant fashion (30-19 at the end of the first quarter) but Red Star recovered and took a lead in the third period after coming back from down 11.. With the score 65 – 66, Olympiacos made a 13 – 1 run to move to a 78 – 67 position early in the fourth period.
Zvezda tried to rally for another turnaround, cutting their deficit to five with three minutes to play. Points by McKissic and Sloukas once again gave the hosts a double-digit advantage which they preserved until the final buzzer.
Marko Simonovic led the efforts of the visiting squad a with 19 points on 5-8 3-pointers. Ognjen Dobric had 11 points and Jordan Loyd 10.
They played better than us tonight,” Crvena Zvezda coach Dejan Radonjic admitted. “The beginning of the game was soft. We played without enough energy in the beginning. After that, it was better, but in the end it was not good enough for something more than this. What is important right now, Langston Hall and Landry Nnoko played their first minutes after more than one month, and that is very important for us because we played with a very short rotation, which was very tough for us.”
Kostas Sloukas added 14 points and seven assists for Olympiacos.
Pleased with the win and the attitude
Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas saw his players performing in the way he liked after a very long time and especially praised the work they put on offense.
“After a big losing streak, it was important for us to show reaction and win this game against an opponent I really respect,” Bartzoksas said. “You saw in the game how consistent defensively they are, they are pressuring the ball-handlers. So it was important for us to play with an unselfish attitude, share the ball. We had 24 assists, and that was the key of the game.”