By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos stormed into EuroLeague Round 10 game against ALBA Berlin 17-30 and never let go to leave Germany with a 99-80 win at the conclusion of the double-game week.
Augustine Rubit (16 points, eight rebounds) and Giorgos Printezis (15 points) set the tone early with nine and seven points respectively in the first period while Kostas Papanikolaou (12 points), Brandon Paul (12 points) and Vassilis Spanoulis (11 points) also scored double-digit numbers for the winning side. Olympiacos is now 4-6.
“We were concentrated from the beginning, most of the time we controlled the fastbreak, we let them hit some threes, but we knew this team never gives up,” explained Olympiacos coach Kestutis Kemzura after the game. “We managed to stay ahead and control the game. Rebounding was one of the keys. We felt we had an advantage there, and it was important to play inside.”
Unlike Tuesday’s (19/11) match against Bayern Munich, in which Olympiacos was defeated after giving up a 12-point lead in the fourth period, this time, the Reds weren’t up for an upset. The Greek squad built upon its superb entrance and was highly effective to reach the final minutes of the third quarter up 26, 43-69.
When the shorthanded, injury-plagued (Peyton Siva, Tyler Cavanaugh, Johannes Thiemann, Stefan Peno out) ALBA attempted a potential turnaround, Paul fired back-to-back triples with the score 67 – 72 and seven minutes left to shut down its opponents’ comeback hopes. Marcus Eriksson had 16 points and Makai Mason 15 points for the “Albatrosses” that suffered their seventh defeat this season.
ALBA coach Aito Garcia Reneses mentioned that missing players was an issue that ultimately his team couldn’t overcome this night: “We had difficulties to play with a good rhythm because we didn’t have substitutions [due to injuries], so perhaps we weren’t always ready to play like usual. Mentally, it’s hard to avoid thinking about this”.
“We are improving a lot”
The bottom line for Olympiacos is that the Reds in the last three games, in which they got two wins, seem to get back on track, as Giorgos Printezis noted: “We were really concentrated because we came here after a bad loss. I believe in the last couple of games we are improving a lot and today we showed a good image. We tried to avoid the easy fastbreak baskets that ALBA wanted and we were able to take an important victory.”
Olympiacos center Willie Reed was forced to sit out the second half with an adductor injury.