By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Kalinic scored a career-high 25 points and dished out six assists as Crvena Zvezda beat Olympiacos Piraeus 81 – 76 at home to register its second straight EuroLeague victory. Their opponents suffered their first loss after three wins in a row.
“Like I said at halftime, we needed more energy, more speed, more motivation, toughness also,” Kalinic said. “We protected our basket, started rebounding better and after that, everything came. You see how we play, we help each other. Everything I did today is built on the back of everybody on the team. We are all building together and it’s great to be a part of this team.”
Kalinic broke his personal scoring record with a big layup for the 80 – 73 with 28 seconds to play. He had previously made the putback basket for the 75 – 70 entering crunch time and in a moment when Red Star moved away from a shooting distance after a very close and tough with multiple ties and lead changes.
With Olympiacos down by five, Tyler Dorsey (a team-high 18 points) missed in a 3-point attempt and was then called with the offensive foul on Zvezda captain Branko Lazic. The latter drained a big 3-pointer to make it 78 – 70 on the other end and give a winning advantage to the hosts.
Dorsey tried to keep Olympiacos in the game with five straight points, including a 3-pointer for the 80 – 76. That was the last the Reds scored though.
Dejan Davidovac had 11 points and Nate Wolters and Nikola Ivanovic scored 10 apiece for Zvezda. Apart from Dorsey, Kostas Sloukas and Sasha Vezenkov dropped 12 points each.
Olympiacos captain Giorgos Printezis became the new EuroLeague all-time leader in field goals by hitting two 2-pointers. He reached 1404 field goals in his EuroLeague career to pass former longtime teammate and fellow Reds legend Vassilis Spanoulis who retired with 1403.
“It was a game that was decided by the details, especially in the fourth quarter,” Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas said. “We lost a little bit our concentration on defense and we allowed some open threes. Red star played excellent, but of course, we had our opportunity to win this game.”
Red Star pulled off back-to-back defensive plays down the stretch and managed to score on the other end to build a solid lead. This balance was what Zvezda coach Dejan Radonjic really apreciated.
“Congratulations to my players for the win and also for a good game,” Radonjic said. “It was a tough game. We played the game with a lot of energy. Like I said before the game, it was very important to play with focus all the time end in the last several minutes we played defensively good, but smart on offense and that was very important.”