Olympiacos Piraeus downed FC Barcelona at Palau Blaugrana on Friday night, as it sent a message to the rest of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague that last year was not a fluke. Giannoulis Larentzakis made the difference for the Reds, scoring all 12 of his points in the fourth quarter.
Larentzakis leads Olympiacos to road win!
In what was a tight contest for the large majority of the game, Olympiacos only began to pull away late on, as it emerged with a 70-80 win. Olympiacos was solid all night long and found a go-to guy in Larentzakis, who buried four three-pointers in crunch time to ensure that the Reds got off to a perfect start. Sasha Vezenkov led the winners with 20 points. Joel Bolomboy and Larentzakis each added 12 off the bench. Nico Laprovittola led Barca with 16 points.
Tomas Satoransky stepped up early and got help from Sertac Sanli and Nikola Kalinic to give Barca a 16-13 lead after 10 minutes. Alec Peters struck twice from downtown and Vezenkov added a triple of his own, as Olympiacos went into halftime with a 28-34 lead. Laprovittola had 8 quick points after the break to put the hosts back in charge, 39-38. Olympiacos did not panic, however, as Isaiah Canaan and Bolomboy fueled an 0-11 run which gave the Reds a double-digit lead, 47-57, late in the third quarter. Cory Higgins and Abrines managed to bring Barca within 57-60, but Larentzakis dynamited the game with four consecutive shots from beyond the arc, allowing Olympiacos to return home with a good-as-gold road victory.