Anatolou Efes – Olympiacos 91-89: Mistakes in the final deprived him of victory –

Anatolou Efes – Olympiacos 91-89, with the “red and white” running out of energy and a clear mind in the crucial last minutes of a match they held in their hands.

THE Olympic started fortsatos in the City, initially from the defense and after the shots outside the 6.75 m. But the effort was left in the middle as Anatolou Efes took advantage of a series of mistakes by the “red and whites” in the crucial last three minutes and managed to snatch the victory from the hands of the “red and whites” (81-79). At 2-2, Olympiacos, who were defeated in the second match this year they played in Polis, after that against Fener.

THE Evan Fournier was in great form offensively scoring 20 points, but was fatal in the final minutes with offensive mistakes. Olympiakos was hurt by the many offensive rebounds collected by Efes, giving Mijatovic’s team the chance to be alive in claiming the match, before the final successful counter-attack. Top for the winners o Shane Larkinwho “heated up” in the second quarter and never looked back, scoring 24 points in the red and white basket.

Against Bayernin Munich (25/10) the next match for Giorgos Bartzokas’ team in the Euroleague.

The match

Six steals, nine assists and just one error Olympic in the first period. Following the tried and tested recipe of compact defense, he disrupted Anatolou Efes and with Fal’s creative ability from the racket out, closed the first quarter in +12 (11-23).

Barzoka’s changes could not continue in the same pattern defensively, with them Vildosa and Petrushev fail to synchronize. On the other hand, Mr Shane Larkin started to heat up, resulting in the home team scoring 30 points in the red and white basket, closing the half at -3 (41-44).

A three-point rhapsody followed in the third quarter, with Larkin to continue from where he left off Evan Fournier to respond with three big shots when Efes came close or even tied the game while keeping Olympiakos’ lead (65-70, 30′).

While Larkin was catching his breath, o Bobois kept Efes alive, while Barzoka’s team found constants in the extraordinary McKissick from the periphery (78-82, 35′). With three minutes to go, Eliza Bryant put Mijatovic’s team in the lead for the first time, but back-to-back mistakes in the crucial minutes and a basket-knife by Bryant in the final seconds gave Efes the win.

The next matchday

The first week of the season did not go well for the two Greek teams, who closed with one win against three losses. THE Olympic faces next Friday the Bayern of Gordon Herbert in Munich, while o Panathinaikoswho slipped to 2-2 after defeats in Paris and Madrid, face Saras Jasikevicius’ Fenerbahce in City.