By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
A splendid game by Vassilis Spanoulis plus a granite-like defense helped Olympiacos to return to victories in Euroleague (after losing to CSKA Moscow and Galatasaray) by beating Barcelona in Piraeus 59-52.
Spanoulis the most constant soure of trouble for Barcelona, finishing the match with 14 points plus 6 assists. Erick Green (9 points), Ioannis Papapetrou (8 points) and Khem Brich (7 points, 7 rebounds) were worthy lieutenants fo their captain.
For a dissapointing Barcelona which reached an all-time scoring low in Euroleague, Jonathan Holmes scored 13 points and grabbed 9 rebounds while Tyrese Rice dropped 11.
An unstoppable “Kill Bill” spearheaded Olympiacos’ offense in scoring and creation (13 points, 3 assists) while on the other side, Jonathan Holmes took advantage of the lack of attention that the opposing defense gave him, making the most out of every single shot to drop 10 points in the first quarter. Still, the hosts manage to take a 21 – 16 advantage, heading to the second quarter.
While both teams played in a downtuned rhythm, Olympiacos continued holding the upper hand thanks to Hackett’s excruciating defenses and Erick Green’s shooting spree. Meanwhile, Barcelona lacked the necessary helps by its usual “go to guys” like Tyrese Rice and Ante Tomic so the 32 – 25 written on the boscore at the end of the first half looked natural.
The halftime break didn’t affect Olympiacos’ intensiy on defense which continued to remain the key behind its efforts. During another successfull stop of the Catalans’ attack, Mantzaris gave Olympiacos the biggest lead by then, making it 39 – 28 in transition. Rice scored some personal points to get his team closer, but the Reds kept applying great amounts of pressure to their opponents being able to recover their double-digit lead quickly.
The two teams entered the final period with the score 49 – 38 in favor of the hosts. Even though coach Sfairopoulos failed to execute well in most of their efforts, Barcelona was completely out of rhythm, losing even seemingly easy baskets. Thus Olympiacos had no problem retaining safe distance from the Blaugrana until the final buzzer.