Olympiacos Piraeus stayed perfect at home and seized a share of second place by turning back visiting AS Monaco with a resounding 86-65 victory on Friday. After eight rounds of play, Olympiacos has a 6-2 record, with all its victories at home. Monaco fell to 4-4.
Reds blast Monaco 86-65, stay perfect at home
Olympiacos trailed by 12 points, 17-29, early in the second quarter and by 35-41 on the first shot after halftime, but overwhelmed Monaco by 51-24 the rest of the way. Tyler Dorsey and Livio Jean-Charles with 18 points each. Kostas Papanikolaou and Thomas Walkup followed with 11 each and Sasha Vezenkov combined his 10 points with as many rebounds for a double-double. Monaco got 12 points from Alpha Diallo and 11 each from Danilo Andjusic and Donta Hall, but after scoring 27 points in the first quarter managed just 38 the rest of the way as the Olympiacos defense shut the door on the visitors.
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After Andjusic and Papanikolaou traded free throws and Donatas Motiejunas and Walkup two-pointers, Diallo converted a three-point play for a 4-7 Monaco lead. Papanikolaou and Diallo exchanged the game's first triples and Walkup drove to get the Reds within 9-10. Motiejunas and Andjusic drilled threes early in Monaco's next possessions to make it 9-16. Dorsey and Moustapha Fall combined for 5 points to settle the Reds at 14-16. Mike James fed Diallo and Hall for easy inside baskets around his own super-deep three to make it 14-25. Papanikolaou answered from deep but Dwayne Bacon fed Brock Motum for a layup to keep Monaco up 17-27 after one quarter.
Motum found Hall for a dunk that Jean-Charles matched for Olympiacos to start the second quarter. Kostas Sloukas and Georgios Printezis scored inside for the hosts, but Bacon matched them as Monaco stayed up 23-34. It took Giannoulis Larentzakis driving, Walkup converting a steal and Sloukas hitting a transition jumper to cut the gap to 30-34. Motiejunas and James dropped short shots for Monaco, as did Walkup and Jean-Charles for the hosts as the visitors held a 35-38 halftime advantage.
Walkup and Andjusic exchanged three-pointers to start the second half before Vezenkov dunked on the break and tipped in a miss to give Olympiacos a 42-41 lead, its first of the game. Motiejunas took it back at the free throw line but only until Dorsey blasted his first triple and fed Fall for a dunk at 47-43. But Dorsey wasn't done. He downed free throws, stole and popped a jumper to finish a 16-2 run with Olympiacos up 51-43. Yakuba Ouattara settled Monaco with a triple, but Vezenkov matched it as the lead reached 55-46. Diallo drove strong before Rob Gray converted a four-point play for Monaco that Vezenkov answered from deep as the Reds held a 59-52 lead after 30 minutes.
Dorsey's free throws and an alley-oop connection between Sloukas and Jean-Charles opened the final quarter with the hosts' first double-digit lead, 63-52. Papanikolaou and Andjusic traded triples at 66-57 before Sloukas found Jean-Charles for another dunk and Dorsey converted a three-point play at 71-57, driving the crowd to new levels of noise. Sloukas and Jean-Charles connected yet again, this time adding a free throw to make it 74-57 with 5 minutes left. Jean-Charles kept ruling inside and Dorsey drilled a long two. The handwriting was on the wall, and it said that Olympiacos was staying perfect at home at 6-0.