Kolossos was leading 27-32 at halftime, the 400 spectators in the Peace and Friendship Stadium froze but Olympiacos woke up in the second half and holding the Rodites to 20 points won 71-52, staying within one win of Panathinaikos.
For one more game, this time in the Stoiximan Basket League, Olympiacos confirmed the long period of deformation that it has been going through. The ‘reds’, after a terrible game in the first half, picked up the pace slightly in the second half and managed to overcome Kolossos’ obstacle 71-52 with Kolossos showing excellent signs for three quarters.
The top scorer for the Olympiacos team, which had 18/22 free throws compared to 4/5 of Kolossos, was Nikola Milutinov who had 18 points and 15 rebounds, while the top scorer for Kuro Segura’s team was Goodlock who had 14 points.
The team of Kolossos entered the game… hungry and showed a willingness to be competitive against Olympiacos. And in the first ten minutes he did a great job. Kuro Segura’s team with Perantes and Goodlock leading the way took a 4-7 lead, with Papagiannis trying to contain Walkap. The ‘reds’ were unsuccessful from outside the three-point line and as a result, they passed the ball in the paint. First with Milutinov and then with Brzdekis who scored 4 consecutive points from the post to make it 10-7 at 6′. However, Kolossos moved the ball very well and quickly and with Braigovic and Perantes they took the lead again at 10-11, but Olympiacos’ first three-pointer by Walkap (1/5 overall) gave the ‘reds a 14-11 lead.
“Bombardment” by Petropoulos and Kolossos ahead
Giorgos Bartzokas, wanting to show his dissatisfaction for the performance of his players, threw Goss, Mitrou-Long, Laretzakis, Papanikolaou and Tanoulis on the court but not much changed. The rest of the first half was… tragic with both teams not being able to score with… nothing (6/23 from the field for Olympiacos at 15′ and 7/24 for Kolossos) and the referees not even giving the seeds to Kolossos. Until the team’s captain, Sotiris Billis, bled to death after… collision and even then the referees gave nothing. Kolossos managed to score a basket on the very next play and closed the gap to 17-15. Despite the fact that both teams were extremely unlucky, Kolossos managed to stay close to the score. With the ‘reds’ finding solutions from the free throw line (8/11 while Kolossos had 1/1 and 1/10 threes), Goodlock kept his team close, but Larentzakis made a three-pointer to make it 25-20. Two minutes before the end, however, Kolossos took a 29-25 lead with three consecutive three-pointers by Antonis Petropoulos. Olympiacos has no solutions and the Rhodes team went to the locker rooms with a score of 27-32, missing two opportunities in the last offensive possession to increase their lead even more.
Olympiacos could not escape
In the second half, the reaction of Olympiacos was more than… expected with the ‘reds’ wanting to take the situation in their own hands. With very good defense they did not allow Kolossos to score, they “led” them into turnovers and with a 0-9 run they took a 36-32 lead, forcing Kouro Segura to call a timeout. Immediately afterwards, Goodlock was the player who put his team back in the game with 5 points of his own, 39-37, while Perantes hit another three-pointer to make it 41-40, cutting the lead to one point. Peters was either executing or creating solutions, but Kolossos was still close, 47-44, with a dunk by Situ, while Bartzokas was forced to put Papanikolaou on the floor in the “5” position to play defense on Situ.
Kolossos couldn’t stand it, Olympiacos… cleaned it up
In the first minute of the fourth and final quarter the score was 54-44 on a basket by Goss and everything seemed to have gone their way for the Piraeus team. Olympiacos continued to find solutions from the free throw line (either from fouls, unsportsmanlike or technical penalties) and with Peters having three out of three in a row, the score became 59-48 at 34′. At this point the Olympiacos players basically… sealed the victory, while three minutes before the end they led by 14 points, 64-50, after a three-pointer by Giannoulis Larentzakis.
Minutes: 14-11, 27-32, 50-44, 71-52
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