Virtus Bologna was held to 5 points for a quarter, Papanikolaou kept the home team alive in the first half with 11 of his 16 points and Olympiacos scraped a much-needed 74-69 win coming back from down 12 in EuroLeague round 28 clash. The “Reds” defense was the decisive factor in the second half while Bologna was unable to score effectively.
In the final period, the game got close despite Olympiacos 11-point lead, but a dagger three from Alec Peters put the game away giving the home side a 7-point lead with 16.0 seconds remaining. With its 5-point win, Olympiacos also secured the potential tiebreaker with both teams sitting at 17-11 after 28 games.
Aside Papanikolaou, Isaiah Canaan had a big game with 12 points, while Moustapha Fall added 11 with six rebounds. Filip Petrusev also had a strong contribution with 7 points and 7 rebounds including several crucial plays in the final minutes. For Virtus Bologna, which lost a 12-point first-half lead, Tornike Shengelia had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, while Marco Belinelli and Daniel Hackett finished with 10 points each.
Virtus Bologna stops home team in the first half, Olympiacos answers with massive second half run
In a high-scoring first quarter, Isaiah Canaan started hot (9 points) and led his team to bring it back from a 6-12 deficit. Jordan Mickey made consecutive good plays on both ends and led Virtus Bologna ahead 14-19, but Olympiacos finished the last 2:16 with a 7-3 run capped by a Canaan three to end the quarter down 21-22.
The second quarter was all Virtus Bologna as the Italian side scrutinized Olympiacos offensive plan with its defensive intensity. The Italians saw Marco Belinelli and Toko Shengelia carrying the team offensively later in the quarter. Virtus made a 3-10 run to take a 24-32 lead with 6:10 to go.
The visitors forced Olympiacos to bad shots, while Kostas Papanikolaou three capped a small run for the “Reds” to bring the game close again (33-37). The Italians continued to put pressure on defense and finished strong the final 2:38 of the period to go to the locker room with a 37-46 lead. Luca Banchi’s squad finished the first half with 4 turnovers and 13 assists, while Olympiacos had just 6 assists and 9 turnovers.
The “Reds” came back with vengeance in the second half and kept Virtus Bologna without a field goal for more than 10 minutes starting from the end of the first half. The first field goal for the Italians came with 35 seconds remaining from Shengelia with Olympiacos taking a 7-point (55-48) lead and finishing the 3rd period ahead 57-51.
The Reds kept pushing in the 4th quarter and got an 11-point (68-57) lead with less than 4 minutes remaining on the clock. Luca Banchi’s squad answered with its final run and cut the lead down to 69-64 with 1:00 minute remaining. However, Nigel Williams-Goss hit a big step-back jumper to keep the game in distance, while Alec Peters secured the tie-breaker after a dagger three with 16.0 seconds remaining.
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