The Reds almost surrendered a 20-point third-quarter advantage against Virtus in Bologna, but came up with big plays late in the game
Olympiacos stays on winning track ahead of Greek derby
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 18 of 38
Regular Season
Virtus BolognaVIR
9497
Olympiacos PiraeusOLY
Overview
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There was a lot of good, and there was a worrying fourth quarter, but Olympiacos Piraeus did what only one team so far this season has done: come out of Bologna victorious.
The Reds held off Virtus in the fourth quarter for a 94-97 win, its second straight, causing the Italian side to suffer just its second home loss of the season. Meanwhile, Olympiacos improved to 10-7 ahead of the Greek derby in Athens next Friday.
The fourth quarter – which Virtus won 34-20, almost erasing a 20-point deficit – can certainly be a point of discussion as it nearly ruined an Olympiacos performance through the first three quarters that was truly impressive.
“I think we are coming into our normal shape,” head coach Georgios Bartzokas said after the game. “Playing together, sharing the ball, finding the open men.”
The Reds were up 60-77 going into the final quarter, despite having twice as many turnovers at the point.
That was all thanks to their dominance on the glass, where the visitors had a 40 to 19 advantage, and 14 to 6 on the offensive rebounds. Also, Olympiacos shot the ball extremely well in the first 30 minutes, making 14-of-21 two-pointers (66.7%) and 10-of-22 from behind the arc (45.6%). Most of those shots were great looks.
Potentially, the greatest news came from the performance of Evan Fournier. The star guard had his best game of the season, netting 21 points on 7-of-10 three-point shooting.
“That feels pretty good, for sure,” Fournier joked in a EuroLeague TV interview after the game. “I had a good meal for Christmas, and that is the reason why.”
Kidding aside, this was the second consecutive games in which Fournier finished with a season-high 21 points. His 7 triples are his EuroLeague career best. And it turned out, Olympiacos needed each one of them.
Olympiacos pulled away in the third quarter. Sasha Vezenkov had a three-point play, Fournier knocked a triple from way downtown, his fifth on the night, then Nikola Milutinov strung together 6 points dominating in the paint.
The lead jumped to 53-69, and soon after Olympiacos held a 20-point lead, 57-77, late in the third quarter.
“We were able to grow a big lead, but we got too comfortable, had too many turnovers,” Fournier said.
The hosts rallied despite Carsen Edwards sitting out the fourth quarter with an ankle injury. And with Thomas Walkup fouling out, Olympiacos had no solutions for the Virtus backcourt of Matt Morgan, Luca Vildoza and veteran Daniel Hackett. Minute by minute, the lead melted.
“The fourth quarter was really difficult for us,” Bartzokas admitted. “Being in the bonus so early, we could not play good defense and they made some very difficult shots. We turned the ball over a lot of time. Some of our turnover were really silly.
“But we managed to win this game. It is a very important win here, I really appreciate it.”
Milutinov had a tip-in on his fifth offensive rebound to make it 84-90, Fournier hit his seventh three with 1:22 to go, giving Olympiacos an 88-93 cushion, then Tyler Dorsey made a tough mid-range jumper with 20.2 seconds left to push the score to 92-95 as the Reds prevailed.
“There were a lot of key moments,” Fournier said. “The biggest moment was probably Tyler’s two-pointer because it allowed to break their momentum. But we made a lot of plays, a lot of guys stepped up.”
Dorsey finished with 21 points, Vezenkov scored 16, Milutinov had 13 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, and Alec Peters also scored 13.
In addition to making 14 three-pointers, pulling out a win on a tough away court will certainly help the Reds go into next week’s Greek derby with plenty of confidence.
