By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
A Vassilis Spanoulis-less Olympiacos thwarted a Unicaja Malaga fourth-quarter comeback from a 15-point deficit to win 80 – 75 in “Peace and Friendship Arena” and double its EuroLeague victories.
The Spanish team, that began the 2017-2018 campaign by beating reigning champions Fenerbahce suffered their first defeat.
The Star: The word was “teamwork” for the Reds, since nearly all of Giannis Sfairopoulos’ players contributed their piece. Hollis Thompson scored a game-high 15 points in 19:25 while Nikola Milutinov dropped 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.
The key moment: Giorgos Printezis (9 points, 6 rebounds) hit the floater to put his team at a three-possession distance, 75 – 68 with one minute remaining. Malaga struck with Ray McCallum (14 points) making 3/3 from the line but then Mantzaris hit the dagger for a new 7-point lead, 78 – 71, practically finishing the match.
“Un comeback Andalou”: The 63 – 48 advantage that Olympiacos got two minutes into the fourth period was almost completely evaporated after just three minutes thanks to a fiery Dragan Milosavljevic (14 points, 5 rebounds). The Serbian player ignited for 10 points allowing his team to approach 65 – 62 in the mid of the quarter. But that was the closest his team could get.
Unicaja Malaga, that was without Jeff Brooks, fought well down the stretch but it was too late to accomplish a full return. Apart from Milosavljevic, James Augustine and Dejan Musli had 12 points apiece doing the bulk of their damage in the first half.