Record EuroLeague run propelled Olympiacos into Final Four

When Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul wiped out an early 13-4 deficit against Olympiacos Piraeus to take a 29-31 lead in Game 5 of their enthralling playoff series at Peace and Friendship Stadium, an upset seemed to be on the cards.
As it turned out, it was the visiting team’s only lead of the night.
With the game hanging in the balance, Olympiacos moved up two gears in the next few minutes and engineered a 15-0 run, the longest in Game 5 playoff history, effectively forcing Fenerbahce into submission.
Kostas Sloukas, who had clinched a vital Game 3 win, 71-72, with a buzzer-beating shot from downtown to give Olympiacos a 2-1 lead in the series, emerged as Fenerbahce’s nemesis again. First, he completed a three-point play to put Olympiacos back in the driving seat, drawing a foul on a spin move as he scored a layup, before converting the and-one free throw.
Then, he hit yet another audacious three-pointer and fed Tarik Black for a monstruous slam dunk. Soon after, Shaquielle McKissic also connected from long range as the whirlwind of a run swept through Fenerbahce and blew away its defense, making a comeback mission impossible for the visitors.
Sloukas also sank a pair of free throws to complete the run before Tyler Dorsey finally stopped the rot for Fenerbahce.
The hosts led 44-33 at halftime and, despite its valiant effort to turn the tide in the second half, a misfiring Fenerbahce simply could not make up the lost ground. The visiting team’s head coach, Dimitris Itoudis, acknowledged it was the turning point in the match, with the entire series decided by fine margins.
“The momentum changed when we led 29-31 and in the next 4:34 minutes Olympiacos went on a 15-2 run to close out the first half,” Itoudis said during his press conference. “It’s a big margin for such a tight series because we had managed to keep Olympiacos out of their ball movement and push them into individual, off-the-dribble situations. They hit some amazing shots today. We are going to grow as a team and as individuals, we are going to come back next year stronger, smarter and more decisive.”