Crvena Zvezda gets big road win in Olympiacos off-night

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

Crvena Zvezda was missing Joel Bolomboy, Luka Mitrovic, Filip Petrusev, and Mike Daum but somehow got one of their biggest wins of the season.

The Serbs got the 81-73 win over competition leaders Olympiacos, improving to a 17-13 record and a tie with Paris in the sixth position of the standings.

Olympiacos, which was missing Nigel Williams-Goss and also Thomas Walkup, remains on top of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with a 22-8 record, having already secured a spot in the postseason.

Rokas Giedraitis with 20 points on 6/7 threes was the top scorer of the winners, Codi Miller-McIntyre had 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Dejan Davidovac with 13 points, and former Olympiacos player Isaiah Canaan with 12 scored also in double digits.

“I think we played as a team for all 40 minutes, we fought all game and that was the key”, said Giedraitis after the final buzzer.

Sasha Vezenkov with 19 points and Shaq McKissic with 14 were the top scorers of the losing side which had an off night on the offensive end.

Zvezda surprising Olympiacos

Zvezda opened the game with a 20-6 advantage after a three by Giedraitis and 10 points by Cody Miller-McIntyre. Fournier trimmed the lead to 12 at the end of the first quarter (20-8), however, the Serbs continue to have things under control, getting up by 13 (28-15) after one more three by Giedraitis.

Olympiacos reacted and made it a seven-point game (31-24), only for Zvezda to close the second period gloriously, extending their lead to 17 points with a 10-0 run (41-24) and the halftime score was 43-27.

The hosts opened the second half with an 8-0 run to trim the lead to eight (43-35), then to seven (47-40) with the first three of Vezenkov. Olympiacos continued the push, making it a three-point game (58-55) at the end of the period after a dunk and a block by Moustapha Fall.

Zvezda didn’t back down and with three back-to-back threes by Nemanja Nedovic and Isaiah Canaan, the guests opened up the last period extending their lead back to 15 (74-59). Olympiacos tried to mount one more comeback, but couldn’t, trimming the lead to six (79-73) with 39 seconds left, when it was already too late.

“I want to congratulate our players on this win. It’s not easy to win here and play against the best team in the EuroLeague so far. We had all these problems with our centers, but the players gave their maximum effort to cover these absences. We knew that we needed to fight, and if the game went well, we could have something good in the end. That’s exactly what happened—especially in the first quarter. We were very focused, played very smart, and in the first half, we scored 17 points on the fast break.

We expected a reaction from Olympiacos; they have quality players who can erase this difference in a matter of minutes. They came close, but we didn’t give up. We continued to stay focused, played well on offense, extended the lead to double digits, and in the end, controlled the tempo. As the game went on, we showed that we deserved to win.

It’s a very big win, but there are four more games. We should be happy today, but from tomorrow, we need to focus on what’s ahead,” Ioannis Sfairopoulos said in his postgame press conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: EuroLeague

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