By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Six players scored in double figures for Olympiacos Piraeus as their team bounced back to EuroLeague wins by beating a shorthanded Partizan Belgrade 87 – 58 at home.
Olympiacos improved to 5-2 with its first victory after back-to-back losses (to Monaco and Valencia) at home while Partizan dropped to 3-4. The Serbian side, which featured a nine-man roster due to injury issues and players competing for the Serbian national team, suffered its first defeat following two straight wins.
Despite several absences (including key contributor Dante Exum), Partizan was quite competitive in an unfriendly Peace and Friendship arena until Giannoulis Larentzakis decided to finish the game early for Olympiacos. The Greek guard scored eight unanswered points to finish the third quarter and then Kostas Sloukas drained a triple that capped an 11-0 run that put the Reds up 71 – 54 with 7:46 remaining.
“I try to be aggressive all the time,” noted Sloukas, “I think we played great defense and good offense. To win in front of our fans is important. Our crowd is always important, they help us a lot. We made them sad and disappointed the last two games, but we want them to continue to support us and be with us. The season is long.”
“I did not understand I scored [11] points in a row but I feel great because it was a part of this important win,” added Larentzakis, “We keep going, we have a difficult schedule.”
Kevin Punter hit a tough jumper but that was the last Partizan scored for seven minutes. The visiting side was spent and out of strength while Olympiacos proceeded to further increase its advantage.
Larentzakis finished with 14 points while Sloukas posted 17 points plus eight assists. Sasha Vezenkov contributed 15 points, seven rebounds, and four assists to Olympiacos’ win, Alec Peters notched 11 points, Isaiah Canaan dropped 10 points and Kostas Papanikolaou scored 10 of his own.
“After losing two games at home, it was a stressful process today, it was a game we should win no matter what,” head coach Giorgos Bartzokas made out the necessity to win, “We were very serious, basically defensively, especially in the second half. We did not allow anything easy for them. We managed to win easily. It was just a win, but we can forget [the two losses] now.”
“We started the game very badly, without any kind of aggressiveness, without any kind of energy,” said Zeljko Obradovic, “And only in the second quarter, we looked like a team ready to fight. Everything else was a very bad picture. I told my players we need to come back to the locker room knowing that we tried to give everything, so the feeling is completely different.”
James Nunnally (14 points, six rebounds), Punter (14 points), Ioannis Papapetrou (12 points) and Mathias Lessort (10 points, six rebounds) stood out from Partizan.