By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus came back from down 14 points at halftime to beat archrival Panathinaikos Athens 78 – 72 on the road and go up 2-0 in the best-of-five Greek League Finals series. The Reds made an impressive 23-2 run in the third period to reclaim a lead they had early in the match and retain it for the rest of the battle.
Tyler Dorsey scored 13 out of his 17 points through the first five minutes of the second half as Olympiacos turned a 46 – 32 deficit at the break into a 48 – 50 advantage. Kostas Sloukas (20 points) and Sasha Vezenkov (19 points) then took over to lead the offense of their team that took a double-digit advantage, 58 – 66, early in the fourth quarter.
Following a superb first half, Panathinaikos was unable to keep up with the same rhythm, also due to the presence of Moustapha Fall. Oly’s big man had to exit the match early in the first period with two quick fouls but spent the entire second half on the floor and heavily impact his team’s game on both ends.
After trailing 63 – 74 with five minutes to play, Panathinaikos managed to cut the margin to 70 – 76 thanks to consecutive baskets by Nemanja Nedovic and then Ioannis Papapetrou scored free throws for the 72 – 76 with 43 seconds remaining. Dorsey missed the jumper on the other end but Fall grabbed the offensive rebound and Sloukas sealed Oly’s win with a pair from the line.
Papapetrou produced 17 points plus nine rebounds while George Papagiannis had 12 points plus 10 boards and Nedovic scored 11 in a lackluster shooting night (4-12, including 1-6 triples).