By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a rematch of the 2022 third-place game, Olympiacos Piraeus beat Barcelona 80 – 70 on the road to begin the new EuroLeague season on a particularly high note.
Sasha Vezenkov led Olympiacos with 20 points plus eight rebounds while Giannoulis Larentzakis scored all of his 12 points with threes in the last six minutes to emerge as the winning factor of the Reds. He hit three straight triples to put his team up 62 – 71 and then drained the dagger for the 66 – 76 with 55 seconds to play. Joel Bolomboy contributed 12 points of his own and also grabbed seven rebounds for an Olympiacos squad that finished with 11-28 3-pointers and a stunning 25-25 (a club record in EuroLeague) on free throws in a difficult and noisy arena to play in.
“First of all, we played very good defense,” Larentzakis said. “We controlled the rhythm very well. In the fourth quarter, we made some shots from the perimeter and I think that was the key. Every win is important; every game is a final for us. We started the season great and we’ll now continue to [prepare for] the next game.”
Nicolas Laprovittola scored 16 points, Nikola Kalinic added 11 points and Cory Higgins dropped 10 points in his season debut for Barca. The American guard tried to lift the hosts from an 11-point deficit at the beginning of the fourth period and brought them close 57 – 60 with seven minutes remaining but that was the closest his team got. Alec Peters (10 points) made two free throws and then Larentzakis began his 3-point attack to keep Olympiacos beyond a shooting distance while Sarunas Jasikevicius’ players didn’t manage to respond.
“I think we went into tonight with the right mentality,” Bolomboy said. “We didn’t have our whole team in preseason, so these first couple of games were trying to get used to one another. It was a tough game, definitely a great atmosphere. I felt like someone was whispering in my ear the whole time, but we fought and got it done. It is a long year, though.”
Barcelona led 18 – 13 in the beginning of the second period but everything changed quickly. Olympiacos turned it around with Vezenkov heating up and a lineup that also included Kostas Sloukas, Peters and Tarik Black to close halftime up 28 – 34. When the Blaugrana found solutions from the perimeter with Laprovittola and Alex Abrines they reclaimed the advantage in the third quarter, only for Isaiah Canaan (nine points, all in the third period) and Bolomboy to put Olympiacos back ahead 49 – 57. Their team kept a lead for the rest of the match.
“I think we were extremely inconsistent,” Jasikevicius commented. “We managed to have a couple of good runs over there, we came back into the game, but we then immediately gave up everything on turnovers and three-pointers. Our defensive averages, I think we don’t fully understand them, but in a team with our quality, this is not an excuse. We have to put the best team on the court and have to do much better.”
A mighty defensive effort
Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas praised how his players defended throughout the game to force a team of Barcelona’s magnitude to just 70 points at home.
“I think this was the key of the game, our intensity on defense,” Bartzokas said. “Although we allowed some open shots from [Nicolas] Laprovittola, it was main target defensively, not to allow him open looks. We were very consistent on defense and controlled the game through our defense, and started moving the ball better in the first half. We had a lot of assists and scored a lot of threes, and some good pick-and-catch with [Joel] Bolomboy. So, I would like to express my appreciation to the fans that came here to support us and of course, to our team, to the players, for a very good performance at this period of time. It is always important to win here, but this is just the first game of EuroLeague. We have a lot of games ahead of us.”