By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Shaq McKissic scored 20 points and Olympiacos Piraeus defeated Barcelona 73 – 66 in Peace and Friendship arena to conclude the EuroLeague regular season in a winning fashion in front of the fans. The Reds took their first home victory over Barca since 2016 and, thanks to this result, they will get at least the third seed heading to the playoffs.
For Barcelona this loss came without any cost since the Blaugrana traveled to Greece with the first place already in their bags. Sertac Sanli (13 points, five rebounds) and Nikola Mirotic (11 points, six rebounds) scored in double figures.
Olympiacos didn’t overcome just the key absences of guard Kostas Sloukas and Moustapha Fall to emerge victorious but also a horrid 6 – 17 shooting from the free-throw line, along with Barca’s 3 – 16 dominance in the offensive rebounds.
Barca was up 38 – 47 halfway through the third period but Olympiacos rallied with a 10 – 0 run to take the lead for the first time of the game following a basket by Hassan Martin.
The two teams traded blows and exchanged leads until the last two minutes. Thomas Walkup pulled for a 3-poiner that made it 67 – 63 and Kostas Papanikolaou blocked Sanli and scored the basket on the other end to put Olympiacos ahead 69 – 63 wih 1:04 to play.
Sanli drained a triple but McKissic secured the win of Olympiacos from the free throw line.