By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Being way more superior than its opponent for 30 minutes, Olympiacos brought Zalgiris Kaunas down in Piraeus, winning 74 – 59 . The Greek team retains its hopes for advancing to the quarterfinals just in the nick of time, while their opponents are out.
Giorgos Printezis confirmed his superb recent shape by being the first scorer of his team with 17 points, while Kostas Papanikolaou had 11 points, making some decisive baskets which changed the course of the game. Ian Vougioukas and Paulius Jankunas were the only redeeming qualities for Zalgiris Kaunas with 14 and 12 points respectively.
An outburst of good basketball in the beginning of the second half was more than enough for the Reds who cashed out their defensive efforts on the other side of the court, by scoring 14 points in less than 6 minutes, while receiving only 5. And when the score became 62 – 41 right into the fourth quarter, it was simply too much for the Lithuanians who didn’t have neither the strength or time to change anything.
Zalgiris had the upper hand only in the first quarter, since after it, the game turned into a monologue for the Reds who greatly outscored the guests in the second and third period save for the last. Coach Jasikevicius’ players lost all battles on both ends of court, finishing the game with more turnovers than assists (14/11) and shooting horribly, especially from behind the arc (2/14) making only 15 baskets in the whole game.