By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
Giorgos Printezis scored a season-high 26 points and Vassilis Spanoulis posted 16 (along with ten assists), including the 3-pointer that forced the overtime, as Olympiacos Piraeus beat Khimki Moscow 109 – 98 at home to return to victories following two losses in a row.
The dynamic duo of the Reds got the job done once again with Printezis putting up strong numbers.
Spanoulis sends the game to OT
Spanoulis hit one of his trademarks sidestep 3-pointers with 19 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the score 96 – 96 as Olympiacos erased a deficit of nine points in less than one minute. On the other end, Alexey Shved, who finished with a career-high-tying 36 points, pulled for the game-winner but, under pressure by Brandon Paul, didn’t release the ball and was called for a travel.
Olympiacos dominated 13 – 2 in overtime. Spanoulis put his team up right from the start, Kostas Papanikolaou scored his 18th point in the match with a 3-point bucket and Printezis dunked the ball to put the Reds ahead 105 – 98 with 1:25 remaining. Khimki was unable to come back and fell to 7-7.
“I can say just ‘wow’. I think we played most of the time with the lead because we deserved it. I think we played according to the plan that we made. But basketball, especially nowadays, against a team like this, you miscommunicate, you lose the focus in some moment and opponents like this hit 2-3 threes and gain momentum, no matter how you played before”, said coach Kestutis Kemzura after the game. His team improved to 6-8 with this victory.
Rimas Kurtinaitis’ players had previously returned from down 12 after Olympiacos went up 63 – 51 at the beginning of the third period. Shved scored 23 points in the second half, including multiple triples that put his team close and then Dairis Bertans and Chris Kramer gave their team a 76 – 82 lead with 3-pointers of their own.
Sergey Karasev nailed 2/2 from the line for the 87 – 96 with 1:09 remaining but it wasn’t over. Printezis made the start from beyond the arc, Paul hit one of his own after shooting 0/6 and then Spanoulis drained the triple that sent the match to the extra period.
Jeremy Evans added 17 points and six rebounds while Devin Booker had 12 points and eight boards for Khimki.
Photo: EuroLeague