With a lot of stress, Olympiacos achieved its first European victory this year: 74-68 over Zalgiris in Faliro. At halftime, the score was 35-24.
Olympiacos got off to an amazing start, especially on defense, and led 21-6 at quarter time. The difference reached 18 points (33-15) and remained in double digits until the 29th minute, when Smilagic reduced it to 48-41, giving the game derby dimensions.
The presence of Mustafa Fal helped the Piraeus to regain some distance, but Sirvidis’ three-pointers turned 64-53 into 64-59. Zalgiris got within shooting distance with a 3-pointer by Francisco, but Sasha Vezenkov made the most important basket of the night at 67-65.
Evan Fournier was the star of the “red and whites” with 15 points, while Sasha Vezenkov had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Fal returned to the Olympiakos lineup after 5 months and played 6.5 minutes, in which he scored a basket. Filip Petrusev played normally, although sick, and scored 8 points.
Giorgos Bartzokas also used Walkup 2, Vildosa 5, Williams-Goss 9, Dorsey 2, McKissick, Papanikolaou 7, Peters 5, Wright 2. Larentzakis was left out of the squad, while the injured Milutinov was absent, but he is expected to return soon. Olympiacos now counts 7 consecutive victories over the Lithuanians.
From Andrea Trinchieri’s Zalgiris, who defeated Barcelona 74-67 in the premiere, former “red and white” Ignas Brazdeikis scored 5, while Bryant Dunston added 3. Sirvidis 17, Francisco 13, Giedraitis 9 also stood out.
Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce, Monaco and Red Star started the season with 2 wins in as many matches. The European champions defeated Bayern 94-79 yesterday at the renovated OAKA (Lessor 22, Nunn 17, Hernangomet 12, Grant 11, Brown 9).
Next Tuesday, Olympiacos will host Armani Milano in the SEF, while Panathinaikos will face the newcomers in the Paris tournament, at “Bercy”, where in 1996 they won their first European trophy.
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