By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Printezis made a great impression of his historic shot in the 2012 EuroLeague final of Istanbul and gave the 66-64 win to the Greeks. Erick Green, like Vasilis Spanoulis in Istanbul, gave the assist and “Saint George” of Olympiacos’ fans made it.
In total he had 15 points, Kostas Papanikolaou with 17 was the top scorer and also had 9 rebounds, but the man who kept Olympiacos alive and send the game to overtime with Dimitris Agravanis who registered a career best in EuroLeague with 16 points. Marko Guduric and (14 p.) and Charles Jenkins (13 p.) led the hosts in scoring.
Crvena Zvezda was kept in check by Olympiacos during the first half which ended with the Greeks leading 30-17. Yes, that’s not a typo with the hosts scoring 6 points in the first three minutes of the game and 11 during the rest of the first half, registering the worst ever first half performace in EuroLeague.
Olympiacos also was not sizzling on offense, but thanks to a very aggresive defense had everything under control. That changed in the second half which started with an 11-2 run for Zvezda after the first made three of the hosts which cut Olympiacos’ lead to four (32-28). The anser was a 7-0 run by Olympiacos (39-28), but Zvezda had finally found an offensive rhythm and thanks to three long range shots by Nemanja Dangubic, Marko Simonovic and Guduric trailed only by one point (42-41) and closed the third period leading 43-42 after a bucket again by Simonovic.
The hosts scored 26 points in those ten minutes and most importanly got the momentum, getting a 50-42 advantage after four minute of play in the last quarter. However, thanks to the crescento of Agravanis, Olympiacos tied the score at 53-53, Guduric and Vangelis Mantzaris exchanged two big threes and the end result was overtime (58-58).