

Olympiacos Piraeus rallied from double-digit deficits to turn back visiting FC Barcelona 77-70 on Tuesday and put one foot into the playoffs. The Reds raised their record to 19-8 and put their eventual postseason qualification in the category of a formality while completing a 2-0 sweep of Barcelona, whose record fell to 18-9.
A bench brigade led by Shaquielle McKissic, with 16 points and 4 assists, and Giannoulis Larentzakis, with 14 points and 4 rebounds, paced the winners. Sasha Vezenkov added 13 points and 7 rebounds. Barcelona got 19 points from Nikola Mirotic, 15 from Nicolas Laprovittola and 13 from Sertac Sanli but after having started strong, suffered from poor 9-for-29 three-point shooting (31.0%).
Barcelona followed 15 points split between Mirotic and Sanli to a commanding 11-22 advantage early in the second quarter, which is when the Olympiacos reserves turned the game around, scrapping for rebounds and second chances. Larentzakis hit his first of 4 three-pointers to trigger a 12-0 takeover run that Kostas Sloukas finished with a layup at 23-22. McKissic used an offensive rebound to reset in the corner for a buzzer-beating triple worth a 29-27 halftime lead for the Reds.
Whereas the two teams shared 4-for-25 shooting from deep in the first 20 minutes, Laprovittola fired up the visitors with back-to-back triples and a new Barca lead of 31-33 right after the break. McKissic and Vezenkov took that lead back at 39-36, also from the arc, and the Reds nursed it to a 50-45 edge after 30 minutes. Barca got as close as 53-51 early in the fourth, but Larentzakis, McKissic and Tarik Black stretched that to 59-51 as the Olympiacos defense held the visitors to free throws for several minutes. When Nikola Kalinic got Barca to within 63-60 with under 5 minutes left, Larentzakis traded triples with Cory Higgins and then came up with his fourth to shut the door, 75-65, with a minute to play.