Olympiacos did in Fonteta what it has gotten us used to in recent years: it beat Valencia (78-65) – now it has 8/8 in the Spanish city. Armed with a great defensive third quarter (ed: they conceded single-digit points), Giorgos Bartzokas’ team laid the foundation for the subsequent victory, which puts them in a position to compete on equal terms for a spot in the four-team regular season.
Apart from that, Olympiacos managed to cover the -7 of the loss in the Peace and Friendship Stadium, i.e. to have the upper hand in a possible tie with Valencia in the final of the EuroLeague regular season. For starters, what he knows is that he is now two wins above Alex Mubrou’s team, gaining a clear advantage over them in the battle for the ranking.
Without anyone realizing it, Alec Peters did irreparable damage to Valencia in the rebounding department. This was confirmed by the fact that the 11 he collected at Fonteta is a career record for him. The 29-year-old power forward ended the night with 9 points (1/3 2-pointers, 1/3 3-pointers and 4/4 free throws), 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals and 2 turnovers in 21’16”’ of play, numbers that earned him 16 points in the scoring system.
The weak link
Kevin Pangos didn’t play much (4’51” to be exact), but it’s obvious that he’s at his worst point – fitness-wise – in recent years. Far from the level of readiness required by the EuroLeague, much further away from the player we admired in previous years. In the 4’51”’ that he stayed on the floor he didn’t write anything in his statistics, while he was also a target for the Olympiacos offense.
The statistic that stood out
The third quarter was the turning point for Olympiacos in the game, since they received a single digit number of points (9). During that time, the reds led the hosts to disappointing shooting percentages (3/13 inside) and double the turnovers against assists (4 for 2).
The race
With Mustafa Fal returning to the starting five after three weeks due to injury, Olympiacos was his… self defensively at the start. That’s why they quickly took the lead (5-8 at 3′).
The offensive turnovers hurt him though, as they gave Valencia easy points and with them the lead (19-17 at 9′) just before the end of the first quarter.
More and better quality options from the bench made the difference for the reds in the second quarter, with Kostas Papanikolaou, Moses Wright and Shaquille McKeishik being the main reason for the +11 (23-34 at 13′).
But again, a short spell of carelessness in attack combined with the versatile talent of Semmi Ojeleye allowed Alex Mubru’s team to come back stronger. To such an extent that Olympiacos’ lead was reduced to a minimal point (39-40) at the break.
At the beginning of the second half, Olympiacos showed the same image as in the first quarter. Tough on defense, effective on offense and somehow the difference went uphill again. So much so that the -1 (41-40 at 21′) became +10 (41-51 at 26′) within five minutes, during which it was obvious that Valencia was suffocating.
The reds’ lead even reached +15 (44-59 at 29′) a little later, before Alex Mubrou was suspended with a second technical within a few minutes.
From then on, the reds did not give the orange team the slightest right. With the defense remaining at a very high level and Moses Wright dominating both baskets, everything had taken its course until the final victory. This one came with a margin of more than seven (7) points, with which they had been defeated in the Peace and Friendship Stadium, to do the job and more in Fonteta.
DIRECTORS: Radovic – Poukl – Vilius.
10 MINUTES: 19-21, 39-40, 48-60, 65-78.
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