Eleven players scored at least 5 points as the Reds cruised past the Italian side at the Peace and Friendship Stadium
Olympiacos flexes its offensive prowess in thrashing of Virtus
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 27 of 38
Regular Season
Olympiacos PiraeusOLY
10977
Virtus BolognaVIR
Overview
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A loss on the road at Dubai Basketball on Tuesday and the way it came in overtime was a bitter pill for Olympiacos Piraeus to swallow. Heading into Friday’s clash against Virtus Bologna, the Reds were looking for the type of bounce-back performance that would see them rediscover their mojo.
Not only did Olympiacos grab a comfortable 109-77 victory to end the double-round week on a positive note, but it did so in an emphatic way against one of the EuroLeague's stingiest defenses.
Despite the long trip to Dubai earlier this week, Georgios Bartzokas’s side drew energy from the home crowd and motivation from Tuesday’s defeat. Olympiacos simply crushed the Italian side, which boasted the league's fifth-best defense (83.2 points conceded per game) heading into the game but couldn’t prevent the hosts from comfortably reaching the 100-point mark.
“We had a bad performance against Dubai, we needed to bounce back,” Sasha Vezenkov, the EuroLeague's MVP of the Month for January, told EuroLeague TV. “We know that Virtus is a tough team, but we didn’t give them a chance tonight. I’m very happy we won this game. Every win in the EuroLeague is very important. There are no bad teams, bad players. Everybody is playing for his pride, his next contract, a goal. For every win, every week we have to give 100%. We played total basketball today on offense and defense.”
Olympiacos flexed its offensive muscle, with Vezenkov setting the tone early by scoring 10 points in the first quarter. He would go on to record 20 points in just over 24 minutes, along with 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Vezenkov was assisted by a clinical Tyler Dorsey, who bagged 18 points – 15 of which came from beyond the arc.
“We wanted to bounce back and that’s what we did,” Dorsey noted. “We usually take the lead and then let teams come back. Tonight we didn’t do that. Proud of the guys, way to finish out the week.”
As many as 11 players netted 5 points, with Olympiacos going 26-for-38 (68.4%) from two-point range and 13-for-28 (46.4%) from deep.
Virtus did start strong and traded blows with the Reds in the first quarter, but Olympiacos was completely dominant in the second. The hosts, who finished the game with the starters having netted 57 points to the second unit's 52, held the guests to just 11 points in the second quarter while pouring in 37 of their own to take a 61-34 lead at halftime.
Those 61 points tied Olympiacos’s record for the most points scored in a first half as Bartzokas’s side fired on all cylinders before the break.
“We have a very deep roster,” Vezenkov added. “The most important thing and the most difficult thing is for everybody to find his role. A lot of talented players, a lot of players with ego in a good way. Everybody wants to play and when you find this chemistry, this balance, then good things happen.”
Having improved its record to 17-9, Olympiacos sits second in the standings behind reigning champion Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. The Reds ended the double-round week with a bang and will look to build a new winning run next Thursday against the 16-11 Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.
The Serbian side may have won the last three games between the two teams, but Olympiacos proved on Friday night that it boasts the offensive power to bring an end to that head-to-head losing streak.
