


Olympiacos Piraeus opened its playoff series against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul with a 79-68 win on Wednesday night. After a back-and-forth first half, and the teams trading blows early in the third quarter, Olympiacos pulled away for good in the third.
The facilitators were Sasha Vezenkov and Isaiah Canaan. The former scored 9 third-quarter points, including a three-pointer, and Vezenkov also had a pair of assists to Canaan who knocked down 5 three-pointers on 6 attempts in the third quarter.
A close-range bucker from Moustapha Fall, another starter, was the only other Olympiacos basket in the quarter which Olympiacos claimed 26-16.
The Olympiacos bench combined to score just 5 points up to that point, a triple from Giannoulis Larentzakis and a basket from Tarik Black, but in the fourth, it was the bench duo of Kostas Sloukas and Shaquielle McKissic who finished the job.
After Fenerbahce closed to within 63-58, Sloukas opened the fourth with a driving layup and soon after he knocked down a triple. Then McKissic scored the final 9 points for the hosts, 3 three-pointers on as many attempts, to open a 15-point margin and ice the game.