By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus saw Olimpia Milano erasing a 15-point margin down the stretch but held on to take a 79 – 74 win and register its third straight victory. The Reds overall completely outrebounded their opponents 37 – 16 and had 21 second-chance points against 0 (!) by Milano.
Alec Peters led a balanced effort by Olympiacos with 16 points (4-4 triples) and six rebounds. He also scored the last basket of the game, putting his team up by 5 with 1:14 to play following the go-ahead basket from downtown by Nigel Williams-Goss.
“The urgency is there,” Peters said after the win that moved his team up to 10 – 8. “It’s the second half of the season so the urgency got to be there. January is a huge month for us, a lot of games and many opportunities to put ourselves in a better position. Everybody on the team is going to be stepping up.”
Shabazz Napier had 14 points plus five assists in his return to Milano. His layup tied the score at 74 with 2:47 to play after the Red Shoes trailed 63 – 48 late in the third period.
Giordano Bortolani was the key player for the Italian side in this comeback with all of his 11 points in the fourth quarter and 3-4 threes. Bortolani’s one missed shot was actually a block by Moustapha Fall with the score 77 – 74.
On the other end, the French big man dished the assist to Peters that gave Olympiacos a five-point advantage that proved to be enough for the win.
“One more sold out”
“I’m grateful to the fans that made one more sold-out for us,” Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas said. “It was a must-win game for us, like all games after that loss to Virtus. Milano made really big shots to put a lot of pressure on us. It was a tight game that we managed to win and that was very important.”
“We still have time to get together. We need to be more solid in the important, tough minutes late in games,” Bartzokas added. “We need time.”
Fall finished with 12 points, six rebounds, and six assists while Nikola Milutinov had 13 points plus five rebounds. Diego Flaccadori scored 14 points and Stefano Tonut dropped 13 points for Milano.
“We played a fantastic game with great heart and great effort by the whole team. I’m very proud of what we did,” Milano coach Ettore Messina said. His team was without Shavon Shields, Billy Baron, and Maodo Lo, apart from Nikola Mirotic.
“OK, we had two bad possessions where we didn’t score. It didn’t happen and they hit a tough three. My players showed great heart one more time.”