By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos guard Tyrese Rice scored a career-high 41 points in the overtime win of his team over archrival Olympiacos Piraeus in Round 12 of the EuroLeague regular season.
This performance tied the second-best scoring output EuroLeague this century. And we’re saying second-best because just a week ago, Anadolu Efes guard Shane Larkin set a new scoring record by dropping 49 points in a victory over Bayern Munich.
“I don’t know what’s going,” Rice told Eurohoops. “It’s like we [him and Larkin] had a bet on it. One thing about it, Shane will probably go for 40 again, at some point. It was just one of those nights and I tried to take advantage of it.”
Rice was just the second player with a 40+ scoring game in EuroLeague since 2013 and Bobby Brown, then a player of Montepaschi Siena. It was a great achievement but wouldn’t mean much without the win.
“I’m just happy that we won the game. To have a big game like that and win is the most important. I’ve had big games in the past and didn’t win. It’s pointless to me,” Rice said on the importance of the victory over numbers.
“You feel like when you’re at home you always got some pressure to win this game. I mean, it’s my first time in it, but I can only imagine,” Rice added.