By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet was missing newcomer John Brown and also Milos Teodosic, Filip Petrusev, and Joel Bolomby.
However, the final score was 87-73 as the Serbs beat Olympiacos, which missed Moustapha Fall and newcomer Nathan Mensah.
Zvezda jumped to a positive record again (8-7), while the Greeks dropped to 9-6 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Nemanja Nedovic with 18 points and Nikola Kalinic with 16 led a balanced team effort based on defense.
“It’s good to be back on a winning streak. we had some ups and downs lately”, said Kalinic after the final buzzer adding: “I think we played very well and we are very satisfied with our concentration, focus, and intensity”.
On the other side, Sasha Vezenkov scored 19 points, Nikola Milutinov added 11 and Evan Fournier had just two points on 1/10 FG.
Zvezda controlling the second half
The first half was balanced with Crvena Zvezda leading 39-38 over Olympiacos.
However, the hosts opened the second half with an 11-0 run, stretching their advantage to 12 points for the first time (50-38), with Nedovic scoring five points, and Dobric adding four.
After a big three by Yago Dos Santos, the score was 65-51 and at the end of the third period, Olympiacos was trailing by 14 points (67-53).
This distance proved to be enough. Olympiacos couldn’t get into sticking distance, trimming the lead to seven (75-68) and not getting closer.
Photo credit: EuroLeague