By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olimpia Milano traveled to Piraeus hoping to possibly kickstart its engines and rekindle its playoff hopes after Mindaugas Kuzminskas’ arrival but Olympiacos wasn’t in any mood for an upset.
Even though they showed some suicidal tendencies near the end, Olympiacos got the 87-80 win.
With Kyle Wiltjer registering a EuroLeague career-high 15 points and Kostas Papanikolaou also adding 15 plus 7 boards the Reds beat their opponents and returned to victories while sinking the Italian team to the last spot in the standings with a 4 – 12 record.
The key: Although the Reds led 77 – 69 early in the fourth, the guests chewed that deficit slowly, yet steadily until a 3-pointer by the hot Drew Goudelock (20 points) made it a single-digit game, 77 – 69 with 1:48 remaining. Yet Oly kept its cool and Kostas Papanikolaou, capped a brilliant overall output by keeping his squad safe with a downtown bucket for the 84 – 73, 35 seconds before the end.
The star: Milano didn’t give up an made it a two-possession affair 85 – 80, but Vassilis Spanoulis iced the match with a pair of free throws and now his team is at the top 12-4.
Thanks to the three-time Final Four MVP scoring (14 points) and facilitating (7 assists), plus Wiltjer’s lethal shooting (12 points in the first half), Olympiacos went to the locker rooms up 48 – 34. That advantages reached a number of 19, 72 – 53 early in the fourth period, from which Milano was unable to recover fully.
Mindaugas Kuzminskas had 12 points in his debut with Milano, even though he had practiced only once. Curtis Jerrels added 15 points plus 4 assists.