The Italian side trailed by double digits at halftime but managed to secure the victory.
Virtus went up a few gears in the second half to beat Olympiacos
Stats
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 15 of 34
Regular Season
Virtus Segafredo BolognaVIR
6967
Olympiacos PiraeusOLY
Overview
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Virtus Segafredo Bologna rallied from a double-digit halftime deficit to beat Olympiacos Piraeus 69-67 in Round 15. What did Virtus do well after the break to turn things around? Let's take a look at the numbers.
Virtus struggled in the second quarter, as Olympiacos dominated the boards. The hosts won the battle of the boards in the first quarter, 11-10, but the Reds pulled down 18 rebounds in the second quarter alone. Virtus managed to grab just 5 rebounds in those 10 minutes, and only 3 of them on the defensive end.
Olympiacos couldn't capitalize on Virtus's struggles
Olympiacos excelled on defense, as it only allowed Virtus to hit 5-of-25 two-point shots (20% 2FG) in the first half. The Reds dominated the paint through Moustapha Fall and Nikola Milutinov, who allowed their team to hit 12-of-19 two-pointers (63.2%) in the first 20 minutes. All that led to a huge difference in both teams' PIR at the break. Virtus had amassed a PIR of 16 as a team, while Olympiacos had a PIR of 63. The Reds struggled from downtown in the first half, however, hitting just 2-of-12 first-half three-pointers (16.7%); only that prevented the visitors from breaking the game open before the break.
Things completely changed after the break. Virtus hit 11-of-17 two-point shots (64.7%) in the second half and only allowed the Reds to bury 6-of-11 shots inside the arc (54.5%). The hosts outrebounded Olympiacos 20-10 after halftime, as the Reds could only pull down 2 offensive boards. Virtus grabbed 13 defensive rebounds, that is 86.7% of all rebounds under its rim compared to 52.9% before the break.
When the dust settled, Olympiacos still had a higher PIR (83) than Virtus (72), mainly because of its 4 blocked shots. Yet, Virtus registered a 69-67 win, which is what matters, and remained undefeated in December, improving to 7-1 at home, too.