Fought for only twenty minutes
Olympiacos was combative for twenty minutes, but wasn’t successful against Barcelona on the road and lost 90-80.
This was the tenth loss in a total of sixteen Euroleague games for Kemzura’s team and now the Piraeus team has a 6-10 record. The next opponent of the ‘reds’, is Fenerbahce that Olympiacos will be hosting on January 2 at the SEF.
Olympiacos did not start the game well resulting in Barcelona building a two digit margin (20-8). Kemzura’s players made a lot of turnovers when attacking, the were shooting with bad percentages and hence the hosts got to lead by 12. However, the presence of Cherry, Rubit, Vezenkov and Papanikolaou on the floor changed the whole outlook of the game.
The first quarter ended 20-12 and then our team ran a partial 7-16, turning the situation around and getting ahead by one (27-28). The ‘reds’ were playing a substantial yet spectacular game as well. With great defense, they even succeeded at leading by five (29-34), however, Pesic’ team showed reaction from behind the three point line to run a partial 11-5 in just two minutes and close the first half leading the score 40-39.
The beginning of the second half was similar to that one of the first. Barcelona was especially aggressive with its defense, in the offense Hanga and Kuric were hurting our team and with a partial 14-4 in five minutes, the score was 54-43. Barcelona continued shooting from the 6.75m arc with Mirotic, Delaney and Abrines for the score to become 69-58 at 30’. Barcelona scored 29 points in ten minutes and hence the -11 for Olympiacos at the end of the third quarter.
In the last quarter, the difference remained at two digits (75-60 at 35’), the hosts were extremely successful when shooting threes and reached a relatively easy victory (90-80).
The quarters: 20-12, 40-39, 69-58, 90-80.
Barcelona (Pesic): Davis 6, Ribas, Hanga 14 (1), Smits, Oriola, Αbrines 5 (1), Higgins 9 (1), Delaney 11 (3), Kuric 18 (3), Μirotic 21 (2), Τomic 6.
Οlympiacos (Κemzura): Rochestie 4, Baldwin 6 (1), Paul, Κoniaris 3, Spanoulis 2, Cherry 6, Vezenkov 14, Printezis 6, Papanikolaou 14 (4), Rubit 10, Reed 15.
The Olympiacos coach, Κestutis Kemzura, talked about the bad beginning his team had in both halves of the game. «Congratulations to Barcelona. They deserved the victory. We did not begin the game like we had planned to. We knew what we were going to be up against, but we didn’t do what we had to do, many times we weren’t even able to organize an attack, they did not allow us to screen and hence we had an offensive problem. We were more aggressive in the second quarter, on both ends of the floor, we found a line up that helped force them to shoot badly, we ran the fast break, but unfortunately in the third quarter we returned where we began. We made many mistakes and a lot of them were due to Barca’s aggressive defense and others due to bad choices we made. At this level, when you make that kind of mistakes, you get punished. We should have played better defense, but still, they were shooting quite well. The only positive aspect is that we didn’t give up and continued fighting. We need to be more careful with our defense, but also with our offense when playing against teams like Barcelona».