By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus made a decisive 3 – 12 run in the last six minutes to beat Panathinaikos Athens 62 – 68 on the road and grab the first place in the Greek League standings from their archrival. Not only did the Reds improve to 18 – 1 d and left Panathinaikos second at 17 – 2 but also took the tiebreaking advantage.
This was the fourth straight for Olympiacos over Panathinaikos through all competitions and was a result mainly of a crucial stretch by Giorgos Bartzokas’ players when the game was on the line. With Panathinaikos up 57 – 56, Sasha Vezenkov and Shaq McKissic combined for five unanswered points to give their team the lead. After a triple by Ioannis Papapetrou, the hosts made a couple of wrong choices and struggled to connect to the basket while their opponents steadily increased their advantage to 60 – 68 with 1:24 to play.
It was game over. McKissic finished with 18 points and five steals to lead Olympiacos in scoring for yet another game in OAKA after the EuroLeague clash between the two sides. Vezenkov added 13 points and 15 rebounds while Kostas Sloukas posted 12 points plus seven assists and Thomas Walkup scored 11.
Nemanja Nedovic had 18 points (3-11 3-pointers) and was the one to give Panathinaikos their last lead in the game when he hit the three for the 57 – 56. Ioannis Papapetrou finished with 14 points and George Papagiannis posted 10 points plus eight rebounds.