By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos almost surrendered a 23-point lead to Fenerbahce but ultimately managed to get a 71 – 62 victory and finish the first leg of the EuroLeague regular season witha 10 – 5 record.
The Reds were ahead of the score 54 – 31 near the end of the third quarter thanks to the immense efforts of Khem Birch (10 points, 13 rebounds) on both ends, the downtown shooting of Erick Green (11 points) and Ioannis Papapetrou (12 points) rising up to the occasion as a “4” in light of the injuries of Giorgos Printezis and Dimitris Agravanis.
Yet that was the moment when Fenerbahce transformed its game, making some necessary stops on defense, while finding some key perimeter baskets that were missing in the first half (1/9).
Luigi Datome (10 points) and Bobby Dixon (9 points) took the torch from Jan Vesely (22 points, 10 rebounds) who was Fener‘s only redeeming quality in the first half and began trimming the Reds’ lead more and more within the fourth quarter.
The difference was first cut into single digits, 65 – 56 and then two consecutive threes by Dixon and Datome made it 65 – 61 with 2 minutes to go.
With his team in dire need of instant scoring the “cavalry” of Vassilis Spanoulis arrived for the hosts. The captain sank an acrobatic lay up and then dished an assist to Matt Lojeski (14 points) for the 69 – 62 with 30 seconds left. It was more than enough for Olympiacos.
Coach Sfairopoulos’ players were dominant in the first half (40 – 21) making short work of Fenerbahce’s defense that focused on stopping Spanoulis from scoring but was punished by his assists. Meanwhile, only Vesely could deliver offensively, dropping his team’s only points from the fifth minute till the end of the second quarter.
Fenerbahce reacted a bit too late since the advantage that their opponents had built, plus the response by the Reds’ more seasoned players prevented their comeback.