Olympiacos rallies to down Zalgiris, 85-92
Baku, January 3, AZERTAC
Olympiacos Piraeus extended its unbeaten run to four games by defeating Zalgiris Kaunas 85-92 at Zalgirio Arena on Thursday night, according to the official website of Euroleague Basketball.
The hosts fired on all cylinders before the break to take a 52-40 lead into the second half, where Olympiacos bounced back by tightening up its defense and outscoring Zalgiris 33-52 to turn the game around. With this win, the Reds improved their record to 13-6, with Zalgiris dropping to 10-9.
Sasha Vezenkov led all scorers with 24 points, 19 of which came in the second half. Shaquielle McKissic netted 17, Evan Fournier had 14 and Thomas Walkup bagged a season-high 13 points. Sylvain Francisco paced Zalgiris with 22 points, Deividas Sirvydis scored 12 and Bryant Dunston netted 10, with Lonnie Walker and Alen Smailagic adding 11 each.
Zalgiris started strong, with Walker and Dunston scoring inside before back-to-back triples from Francisco gave the hosts a 10-4 lead. Francisco netted his third three to take his tally to 12 early points, but Walkup scored twice in the paint to cut the difference to 18-10. Kostas Papanikolaou and Vezenkov netted from deep, but Edgaras Ulanovas responded with a four-point play to restore a 22-16 lead. Then, Walkup bagged his fourth bucket of the first quarter to make it 22-18 after 10 minutes.
Walker got Zalgiris going in the second quarter by scoring his team's first 6 points, including a four-point play to restore a 28-20 lead. Brady Manek and Francisco nailed back-to-back threes, but McKissic responded with one of his own, trimming the deficit to 34-28. McKissic took his tally to 9 points off the bench with a layup before an alley-oop dunk from Nikola Milutinov made it 36-32. Smailagic also opened his account from inside before drilling a triple that extended Zalgiris’s lead to 41-32. A Walker triple was followed by Fournier’s three-point play before a three from the Olympiacos forward slashed the difference to 44-40. Yet, Smailagic nailed a midrange jumper before triples from Sirvydis and Francisco restored a 52-40 lead at halftime, with Zalgiris’s point tally being tied for the third-highest scoring first half of any team in the league this season.
Dunston and Vezenkov traded scores inside twice to open the third quarter before a Walkup layup and a couple of free throws from the Olympiacos forward cut the difference to single digits, 56-48. Four unanswered points from Fall were followed by an open layup from Francisco, but Fournier netted a three and Vezenkov scored inside to bring the visitors within 60-58. Two buckets from Smailagic sandwiched a Fournier triple before Sirvydis made 2 of 3 from the line to make it 66-61. Then, Sirvydis nailed a tough triple, but Fournier scored a turnaround jumper that cut the difference to 71-67 heading into the closing quarter.
Olympiacos opened the fourth with a 0-13 surge, as Vezenkov and McKissic nailed a triple each and Milutinov added 4 points to his tally to put their team ahead for the first time, 71-80. Dunston pulled off a tough finish inside to end Olympiacos’s run before a triple from Arnas Butkevicius cut the difference to 76-80. After Vezenkov and Sirvydis traded buckets, a layup from McKissic and a triple from Walkup restored a 78-87 lead. Zalgiris didn’t give up, with Sirvydis scoring inside and Butkevicius drilling a triple that trimmed the deficit to 83-87 with 1:31 left on the clock. Ignas Brazdeikis didn’t manage to convert on either of the next two possessions and Vezenkov made free throws to seal the outcome.
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