By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Kostas Sloukas scored 21 points including the win-sealing free throws and Sasha Vezenkov added 17 points and nine rebounds as Olympiacos Piraeus beat AS Monaco 87 – 83 on the road to make up for a Game 2 home loss and claim a 2-1 lead in the playoff series.
“I think we controlled the game pretty well, except the fourth quarter,” Vezenkov said. The Bulgarian forward and the rest of his squad can check their Final Four ticket Friday (29/4). “We were up by 15 points. I have great respect for the team of Monaco, they played really good throughout the year, especially on the home court. We knew they would come back, we made some poor mistakes. But at the end, we made some shots, made some free throws, played some good defenses, and I am really happy we won this game.”
Monaco came back from down 15 points at the beginning of the fourth period to take an 80 – 79 advantage with 1:31 to play after an 11-2 run. Six unanswered points gave Olympiacos an 80 – 85 upper hand with 10 seconds remaining but it wasn’t over yet.
Dwayne Bacon, the protagonist behind Monaco’s comeback, drained a 3-pointer with six seconds to play to keep his team alive. On the other end, Sloukas hit a pair from the line to secure a victory that gets his team one win away from a Final Four return.
Bacon completed the game with 23 points, scoring 11 of them in the last eight minutes. Will Thomas had 15 points and eight rebounds while Mike James finished with 13 points, eight assists and five boards but shot 1-9 from the field. He was ejected with a fifth foul, 30 seconds before the end of regulation.
Thomas Walkup provided 13 points, six assists, five rebounds and some powerful defensive impact for Olympiacos. After trailing 23 – 19 in the first quarter, his team controlled most aspects of the game on both ends to eventually go up 56 – 71 near the end of the third period. Monaco erased that margin completely but their opponents had the final say.
“We should think positive, no matter what. Learn also from this game and get to the next one,” Monaco coach Sasa Obradovic said.
A win and a lesson
Olympiacos took the lead and also got a reminder – without the cost – that Monaco won’t give up, especially now that they play with their backs against the wall. Reds coach Giorgos Bartzokas hopes that his players will keep that in mind ahead of Friday’s battle.
“We won, that is very difficult here,” Bartzokas said. “Monaco is a team whatever mistake you do, tactically, they put a lot of pressure on our guards, they stole a lot of balls. They played to the limit of fouls and they stole a lot of balls. When we had a big difference in the third quarter they came back. I respect them, they deserve to be here. they don’t quit. We need to go on with this attitude in this series. It will be a tough series until the end.”