By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
A dagger from Janis Strelnieks delivered the killing blow to Olympiacos with 4 seconds to go and gave the victory to Brose Baskets 72 – 71, in Bamberg. The German team preserves its mathematical chances of advancing to the playoffs, while Olympiacos is now in big trouble.
Strelnieks was also the top performer for his team, since apart from his 10 points, he dished 6 assists for a total of 19 in the ranking system. Leon Radosevic and Bradley Wanamaker added 11 points each. Once more, the players of Brose Baskets used their exceptional ball movement to find all sorts of open looks to the basket throughout the whole game. But their action bore the sweetest fruits, near the end, when it mattered the most. Coach Trinchieri’s guys made 3/3 three-pointer shots in the last 100 seconds, coming back from the 63 – 69, claiming the game as theirs and practically “stealing” it from the hands of Olympiacos.
Giorgos Printezis was again pretty good for Olympiacos with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Vassilis Spanoulis had a performance close to the double-double (15 points, 9 assists). The captain of the Reds had made a big shot for the 63 – 69, with two minutes to go, but also lost the ball in the crucial last play of the game. And with it, the guests lost the chances to attempt a game winning shot.
Powered by the low post, and not only, activity of Printezis, Olympiacos was the team to hold the edge in the first quarter. The hosts kept finding many points from inside the paint, making the score 22 – 30, three minutes into the second quarter. Through their smart game, Brose Baskets read the inconsistencies in the Reds’ defense and got ahead 38 – 37 at the end of the first half.
The third quarter belonged to Olympiacos, since the guests built a double digit lead, making it 43 – 53 near the end of the period. But Brose Baskets kept punishing every defensive mistake of their opponents to cut the deficit and remain dangerously close. And their threat, became quite real when they scored nine points in the last two minutes to grab the bite from Olympiacos’ mouth.