Olympiakos took a critical showdown in Top 16 Group H by downing Valencia 77-62 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus on Wednesday night.
The Reds is now in sole possession of second place in Group H with a 2-1 record, while Valencia dropped to 1-2. In the other match involving a Greek side, Spaniards Caja Laboral roared back into the picture in Group E with a 77-70 win over Panathinaikos that puts the two teams tied atop the standings at 2-1. Olympiakos will reach the Top 16 – and Valencia will be mathematically out – if it wins in Valencia and Fenerbahce Ulker (3-0) beats Zalgiris (0-3) in Kaunas in Week 4. Rasho Nesterovic paced the winners with 17 points on 8-of-10 two-point shooting.
Vassilis Spanoulis added 14 points, Ioannis Bourousis had 11 and Theo Papaloukas tallied 8 points and 9 assists for the Reds.
Victor Claver led Valencia with 16 points. Dusko Savanovic added 13, Robertas Javtokas had 12 and Serhiy Lishchuk 10 for the reigning Eurocup champions. Spanoulis led a 10-0 run that allowed Olympiakos to get an 18-12 edge after 10 minutes.
The Reds improved their ball circulation in the second quarter and as many as six players scored at least 5 points in the first half, allowing the Reds to get a safe 38-24 margin at the break.
A 10-0 run that Matt Nielsen capped with a six-metre jumper broke the game open, 48-32, as Olympiakos managed to keep a double-digit lead all the way until the final buzzer.
After the match, Theo Papaloukas said, “This was a difficult game for us; especially considering the fact that we are now carrying the bad home defeat against Fenerbahce Ulker in the Top 16 opening game.
“We had to be totally focused on the game tonight, because in Valencia we were facing a very good team, which had shown a very improved status under coach Pesic. We had to play good on defence and so we did.
However, it was obvious on the court that we had to deal with a lot of pressure,” he said. “We know that at this stage even a single point could determine your final position; you could earn the top spot or even fail to qualify because of 1 point.”
Papaloukas also recorded a very special milestone during the match, notching up 300 steals in the Euroleague.
“As far as me reaching 300 steals in the Euroleague, I think that now that I am old, I do a better job thanks to my experience and not my quickness.
I have said before that you have to take small risks in order to steal the ball. But at the end of the day what matters is not the total amount of steals, but the number of wins you have celebrated.” Against Panathinaikos, Caja Laboral’s Fernando San Emeterio led a true team effort with 21 points and 4 assists for the winners.
Though the Greek champs challenged till the end, San Emeterio iced the game with two free throws with 17.9 seconds remaining, a rebound on Panathinaikos’s last missed shot and a pass down court to Mirza Teletovic for a slam that established the final score.
Teletovic added 17 points, Esteban Batista scored 11, David Logan 10 and Pau Ribas had all of his 9 with 3 three-pointers at the end of the third quarter that gave the hosts an important 59-49 cushion with 10 minutes remaining. Dimitris Diamantidis led Panathinaikos with 12 points and 11 assists.
Drew Nicholas was the Greens top scorer with 15, Mike Batiste added 14 and Kostas Tsartsaris netted 11. The two teams meet again will sole possession of the top spot on the line in two weeks in the Greek capital.
