Olympiakos’ passage from the stadium where last year’s final four took place was triumphant: 95-76 over Zalgiris in Kaunas in front of 12,000 fans. Among the spectators were about 200 Greeks who traveled with the Piraeus delegation.
Playing in familiar surroundings, Tomas Walkup was Olympiakos’ leading scorer with a career-high 22 points. The amazing Shaquille McKissic scored 20 points, Alec Peters 16 and Moses Wright 11.
The match was uneventful in the first part, with a slight Greek advantage: 4-10, 23-28, 39-41 at halftime. Olympiacos stepped on the gas in the middle of the third period with Walkup in front: 45-56 and 56-69 with Wright’s spikes. The three-pointers of Papanikolaou and McKissick brought the difference to 18 points (61-82) and the Lithuanians surrendered.
Kostas Papanikolaou played through an injection after suffering from lower back pain and finished the game with 7 points in 26 minutes. Ignas Brazdeikis, awarded before the jamball, scored 2 points against his old club. Giorgos Bartzokas also used Luntzis 2, Kanaan 5, Petrusef 6, Fal 4. In addition to Milutinov, the injured Williams-Gos, Larentzakis and Mitrou-Long were also absent.
From Andrea Trinchieri’s team, Evans 18, Schmitz 17 stood out. Former “green” Lucas Lekavicius added 10 points.
Olympiacos now counts 16 wins and 11 losses and figures in the top six leading to the playoffs, while Zalgiris has a record of 11-16 and remains outside the privileged positions.
Panathinaikos, celebrating last night’s triumph over the European champions Real in Madrid (86-97, Lessor 26, Nan 17, Sloukas 16, Grigonis 11, Mitoglou 8) is in 3rd place in the standings together with Virtus Bologna, with a record 17-10. Real leads with 22 wins in 27 games.
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