By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus was seeing Panathinaikos Athens amassing a comeback from down 16 and nearly completing a full turnaround with 10 minutes to play at OAKA in EuroLeague’s derby of the eternal rivals. The hosts had cut their deficit to three at the beginning of the final period and it felt a bit like deja-vu for the Reds since they were beaten by their archrivals in a similar fashion at home in the Greek League.
Enter Shaq McKissic. The American wing scored 12 out of his team-high-tying (and personal season-best) 18 points in the fourth quarter as Olympiacos beat Panathinaikos 84 – 65 to close the first leg of the regular season at the third place in the standings with a 12 – 5 record.
“This year is a different dynamic than last year,” McKissic said, a nod to coming off the bench this season and playing fewer minutes. “I would much rather be part of a winning team but have a lesser role. I just trust the coach to give me the opportunity that he did. There’s something about these Greek derby games that allow me to come alive.”
McKissic caused all sorts of problems to Panathinaikos’ defense by hitting 3-pointers, slashing his way through enemy ranks and finishing tough “… and-one” plays in front of his opponents at will. He scored five straight points at the beginning of the fourth period and then drained the triple to put Olympiacos up 58 – 66 as his side was reclaiming the momentum of the game that Panathinaikos had grabbed in the third quarter.
Sasha Vezenkov (14 points, five rebounds, four assists) added a triple of his own to hand Olympiacos a double-digit advantage – 60 – 72 with 3:26 to play – and put the icing on a splendid, all-around performance of his own. The visitors’ lead never fell below double figures in the remaining minutes.
Nemanja Nedovic registered 17 points and seven assists but also committed six turnovers for a Panathinaikos squad that was without defensive specialist wing Howard Sant-Roos. George Papagiannis had 14 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks while being pivotal with a towering presence during his team’s comeback effort.
“The first half we were down by 15 but in the third quarter we held them to 9 points and we came back into the game,” Papagianis said. His team is now 4-13 and second-to-last in the standings. “We were down 3. But what really mattered was they made some tough shots and got a bigger lead. They got the win and it was a tough loss for us.”
After trailing 32 – 45 at halftime, the Greens approached at a shooting distance by controlling the third period 19 – 9. They took advantage of Olympiacos’ mistakes and many hasty offensive decisions while strengthening their defense, particularly inside the paint.
Everything turned upside down in the last quarter with Panathinaikos collapsing and Olympiacos regaining its offensive flair to drop 30 points in 10 minutes en route to victory.
Tyler Dorsey finished with 18 points while Kostas Sloukas produced 16 points and six assists for Olympiacos. The latter was instrumental to his team dominating at the break, posting 10 points and four assists in the first 20 minutes.
“Congrats to Olympiacos,” Panathinaikoc coach Dimitris Priftis said. “They played better than us. That’s obvious from the final score. We approached the game wrong, except the third quarter. We had a bad offensive day. This is also obvious from the score. And we had the correct mindset in the third quarter. But apart from that – mostly in the fourth quarter – we behaved stupidly and we gave up this big difference, which was not telling for our effort.”
“A big credit to the players”
Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas commended his guys for being faithful to the battle strategy and reacting strong to push back Panathinaikos in the last period.
“We were able to lead the whole game,” Bartzokas said in the post-game flash interview. “Only the third quarter were they able to come back. We managed to win this game. It was very important for us. I feel great for the players. They followed the plan. They played an excellent game offensively and defensively. So congratulations to the players. Merry Christmas to everybody, especially the Olympiacos fans.”
“It was a game as we expected it to be. We needed to be very consistent on defense,” Bartzokas added in the presser. “I think we played great defense for 40 minutes and very good offense for three quarters, except the third one. We gave Panathinaikos the opportunity to come back into the game. But in the end, we managed in the fourth quarter with good decisions defensively and offensively to make some very good plays and we won. It was a very important win for us, finishing the first round with 12 wins. I would like to give a big credit to our players for today’s performance but also what we did in the first round. Good luck to Panathinaikos for the upcoming games.”