A deserving first!

Olympiacos beat Baskonia at the SEF 86-78 and finished in first place of the Euroleague's regular season for the first time in the history of the competition!

Now, the 'red & whites', after also having won home court advantage, await for the completion of the last round to find out who their opponent for the playoffs is going to be.

With Sasha Vezenkov and Kostas Papanikolaou doing a good job on both ends of the court as well as with rebounding, our team imposed the tempo and despite many turnovers, they closed the first quarter at +8 (19-11). Relying on Howards good long range percentages, the Basques closed in to one point (21-20) at 13', however, Olympiacos reacted on the spot. They put pressure in defense, moved the ball impecably in offense and with Kostas Sloukas and Sasha Vezenkov leading the way, they got to widen their lead to 15p. (45-30) at 19'. 

Baskonia closed in 45-33 by the end of the first half, and taking advantage of our teams scoreless first three minutes in the second one, they came even closer (45-38 at 23'). The 'red & whites' responded with a partial 8-2 and their lead increased to 13p. (53-40). However, the Spanish team was playing for its survival in the competition and they did not give up the fight. They pressed in defense, took advantage of the bad decisions our team was making at the time when attacking and closed in to 4p. (53-49 at 27'). But it was as far they went... Kostas Papanikolaou took over, struck from behind the three point line and Olympiacos sent the difference sky high to 17p. (72-55) at 31'. From that point on - and without reaching high performance standards - our team maintained complete control of the game (80-68 at 37') and reached, without ever practically being threatened, to the win. 

The quarters: 19-11, 45-33, 66-55, 86-78.

OLYMPIACOS BC

BASKONIA