By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The start was not ideal for Partizan, but the season is long and nobody is safe at Belgrade. The Serbs beat Olympiacos 78-70 for a 4-8 record, while the Greeks fell to 8-4 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Carlik Jones with 15 points, Iffe Lundberg with 13, Brandon Davies with 12, and Vanja Marinkovic with 10, all of them making big plays down the stretch, were the first among equals for Partizan.
“It was our energy on the defense that started everything and gave us confidence on the offensive end”, said Carlik Jones after the final buzzer, “we were able to run and made some big shots”.
Olympiacos was missing Sasha Vezekov and got 16 points by Evan Fournier who had a great first period but couldn’t save the day.
Nikola Milutinov added 13 points and eight rebounds, while Alec Peters had 12 points.
A dogfight until the end
Olympiacos opened up the game admirably, leading 23-9 with Fournier already scoring eight points.
At the end of the first period, the Greeks were up by nine (25-16), however, Partizan reacted and with a partial score of 22-11 in the second period got a 38-36 halftime lead.
Olympiacos did the same with a 21-11 third-quarter score, getting the lead back and a seven-point distance entering the last period (57-50).
Partizan didn’t back down, making it a three-point game (60-57) after an unsportsmanlike foul called on Kostas Papanikolaou and then getting the lead with a three (63-62) by Carlik Jones and one more shot by Iffe Lundberg (65-62).
That proved to be the start of a 15-3 run that gave Partizan a nine-point advantage (72-63) with three minutes left. Olympiacos couldn’t get into sticking distance after that and Partizan got a big win.
Photo credit: Eurokinissi