By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus delivered one of its most impressive performances in EuroLeague ever to crush Virtus Bologna 117 – 81 at home and bounce back to wins in the competition.
The Reds registered new club records in points and assists (33) in a superb output thanks to which they improved to 8-4 while Virtus dropped to 4-8. The only thing worse than the final outcome for the Italian side was that forward Semi Ojeleye had to exit the game early with an injury.
The players of Olympiacos imposed their rhythm right from the start to lead 31 – 15 after the first 10 minutes. Sasha Vezenkov produced 10 points out of his 19 points (on 7-9 shots over 15 minutes) during that stretch and Thomas Walkup dished out six out of his eight assists in the first quarter to set the tone on offense. Isaiah Canaan had all of his nine points along with three out of his four dimes by the first 11 minutes to contribute to the hosts’ electric start.
Virtus was simply unable to both hold back this offensive storm or keep up and fell behind 61 – 35 at the break. The Italian team couldn’t do much against its opponents’ shooting spree (10-17 3-pointers) and paid for every defensive gap and mistake to watch Olympiacos completing halftime with an incredible 11-12 on 2-pointers.
Moustapha Fall (15 points) had some dominant plays in the start of the second half with seven straight points. Vezenkov handed his team a 30+ lead and the rest of the game turned into a typical procedure, especially since Olympiacos wasn’t willing to slow down and Virtus never managed to be competitive.
Jordan Mickey (12 points) and Ismael Bako (10 points) scored in double figures for Virtus. Tornike Shengelia dropped eight points in his return to action (ankle) and just third game this season in EuroLeague.
Alec Peters (15 points), Shaq McKissic (13 points) and Giannoulis Larentzakis (11 points) provided their touch in Olympiacos’ record-setting game.