Olympiacos prevails in thriller over Maccabi, 95-89

Olympiacos Piraeus is co-leader in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings for a second week in a row after grabbing a hard-fought 95-89 home victory over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Olympiacos watched its 17-point lead fall to four points before holding off Maccabi to improve to a 14-7 record, while the visitors dropped to 2-9 away from Tel Aviv and 11-10 overall.
Sasha Vezenkov paced the Reds with 23 points. Shaquielle McKissic added 13 points, while Thomas Walkup finished with 9 points and a career-best 12 assists. Roman Sorkin was unstoppable for Maccabi with 23 points and 9 rebounds in the loss. Wade Baldwin picked up 14 points and 8 assists, and Bonzie Colson had a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double.
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The Reds saw early three-pointers drop from Vezenkov and Kostas Papanikolaou to lead 8-7. Maccabi answered twice from deep and held the number one offense scoreless for more than three minutes in a 0-11 run to take an 8-18 lead. Vezenkov tallied 7 points at the other end to help Olympiacos move back ahead, 24-23. The score was 24-25 after 10 minutes. McKissic came off the Olympiacos bench to spark a 9-0 surge and give the hosts a 33-27 advantage. Olympiacos tasted blood and kept attacking with Vezenkov and McKissic, extending the gap to 17 points, 51-34. The score At the break, Olympiacos had a 15-point edge, 51-36.
Sorkin came out of the locker room on fire and scored 13 points in the first five minutes of the second half, but Maccabi still was down 64-55. Sorkin and Maccabi kept pushing and got within 71-64 after 30 minutes. The guests refused to give up and managed to cut the deficit to 73-69 with seven minutes to play. Olympiacos answered with eight straight points over a more-than-three-minute stretch to reestablish a 10-point advantage. Giannoulis Larentzakis, Alec Peters and Walkup all hit three-pointers down the stretch as Olympiacos staved off Maccabi's comeback attempt.