In a game where neither team had a lead larger than 7 points, Olympiacos Piraeus pulled out a dramatic 84-87 overtime win over UNICS Kazan on Friday night. The Reds registered their third consecutive victory, and second on the road, to improve to 9-4, while UNICS had its four-game winning streak snapped, dropping to 7-6.
Olympiacos pulls out OT win in Kazan, 84-87

Sasha Vezenkov scored half of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead Olympiacos. Kostas Sloukas finished with 12 points and 8 assists, while Giannoulis Larentzakis and Moustapha Fall scored 10 apiece in victory. Lorenzo Brown scored 21, and Isaiah Canaan netted 20 for the hosts. John Brown and Mario Hezonja added 11 apiece in a losing effort.
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Thomas Walkup used a pair of Olympiacos steals for two fastbreak baskets to open the visitors' tally, but Hezonja answered each with a three-pointer, and a three-point play from Dmitrii Uzinskii helped open a 13-6 lead. Olympiacos quickly erased the deficit behind 8 point from Vezenkov to tie it at 15-15, but a triple from Canaan sent UNICS ahead 20-17 after 10 minutes. Hassan Martin opened the second quarter with a basket-plus-foul, before Livio Jean-Charles had a baseline jumper and a layup and Sloukas nailed a transition triple to make it 24-29 midway through the second quarter. The teams went to the foul line often, including John Brown's three-point play that cut it to 31-32. Olympiacos restored the margin with Larentzakis and Sloukas nailing back-to-back long-range shots, but Lorenzo Brown strung together 7 points including a three-point play that cut it to 40-42 at halftime.
Canaan opened the second half with back-to-back triples before Uzinskii and Tyler Dorsey traded three-pointers. Lorenzo Brown and Vezenkov traded close-range baskets, before Canaan's fourth triple made it 55-51. A pair of dunks from Fall kept Olympiacos within 57-55, but Marco Spissu nailed a corner triple before another dunk by Fall made it 62-59 after three quarters. Vezenkov opened the fourth quarter with a corner triple, and Sloukas added another one of his own, before stealing the ball from Spissu and scoring on a breakaway to make it 64-67. Hezonja strung together 5 points that tied it at 69-69 with under 6 minutes to go. But the hosts never led again. Vezenkov hit another three-pointer for Olympiacos and, after an almost 2-minute scoring drought on both ends, Lorenzo Brown took it to the rim, but Dorsey hit a second-chance triple to make it 72-75. After Canaan's transition three-pointer made it 75-75 with 1:07 left, Fall scored a last-second layup to put the Reds in front again. However, Tonye Jekiri had a put-back layup with 12.7 seconds to go that forced overtime, 77-77.
Fall had a layup and Vezenkov a pair of free throws to make it 77-81. Those were the only baskets in the first 3 and a half minutes of the extra session before Lorenzo Brown nailed a mid-range jumper. The scoring picked up as Larentzakis took it to the rim, and Lorenzo Brown had a put-back layup, before Vezenkov's corner triple with 30 seconds to go made it 81-86. Canaan quickly answered with a three-pointer, but Olympiacos ran 14 seconds from the clock before Sloukas was sent to the foul line. He split free throws to make it 84-87, and UNICS had 6.2 seconds for the final possession, but Hezonja's triple at the buzzer was short and Olympiacos celebrated a thrilling win.