By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos improved its EuroLeague regular season record to 16 – 6 by defeating a quite resilient Zalgiris Kaunas in Piraeus.
This result keeps the Reds at the third place of the standings, while the Lithuanian squad fell to 9 – 13 watching their playoffs chances getting trimmed.
Giorgos Printezis registered a double-double consisted of 17 points plus 10 rebounds while Matt Lojeski added 12 points, 7 of them in the fourth quarter.
It was there the hosts manage to down their opponents who had put quite a fight for 35 minutes thanks to the raving action of Lukas Lekavicius (11 points, 5 assists) and Paulius Jankunas (10 points, 5 rebounds). The latter’s injury in the second half affected his team’s performance, since Zalgiris’ offensive choices weren’t exactly ideal down the stretch.
The Greek squad had began taking a small, albeit steady control of the game a bit earlier than that. After a balanced first half (35 – 35), Olympiacos grabbed a five-point lead in the mid of the third period, 52 – 47 by increasing its threats inside the paint, thus attacking the basket with a more orthodox plan.
However Zalgiris kept being close, never allowing its opponents to escape with a big margin and remaining dangerous until the last minutes. Then coach Sfairopoulos’ players achieved a 7 – 0 run that made it 71 – 61 with 1:07 to go thanks to a downtown basket by Vassilis Spanoulis (11 points) who had also tied it at halftime with a buzzer beating 3-pointer. Game over.