2021-22Regular SeasonRound 4
October 15, 2021 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Olympiacos shakes off slow start, wins comfortably over Zalgiris

Olympiacos Piraeus shook off a slow start and ended up racing away from Zalgiris Kaunas for an impressive 83-68 home victory. Two days after losing in overtime to FC Barcelona, Olympiacos fell behind by 14 points midway through the second quarter. But the Reds tied the game in the third quarter en route to a 27-10 period and ended up improving their record to 3-1. Kostas Sloukas paced four Olympiacos players in double figures with 17 points while Giannoulis Larentzakis scored 13 points, Sasha Vezenkov 12 and Kostas Papanikolaou had 10. Zalgiris remained winless at 0-4 despite Emmanual Mudiay tallying 19 points with 4 assists while Arturuas Milaknis scored 14 points and Josh Nebo added 12.

Mudiay opened the game with a jumper for the guests, with Olympiacos needing more than 2 minutes to score on a three-pointer from Papanikolaou, which was followed another triple from Tyler Dorsey for a 6-5 lead. Zalgiris was working hard on defense and used the long ball as Milaknis buried 3 three-pointers in a 2-16 run for a 8-21 advantage. Olympiacos got four points back but it was 12-23 after 10 minutes. Tyler Cavanaugh hit a long jumper as the first score of the second quarter for the guests. Sloukas did manage a three-pointer at the other end but the Zalgiris offense continued to hum, especially Mudiay with four more points for a 15-29 cushion. Olympiacos started getting hot from long range as well, as Shaquielle McKissic hit a triple and Larentzakis made two more to get the margin to 28-34. Mantas Kalnietis added a triple of his own to make it 30-39, only to see Olympiacos score the final six points to pull within 36-39 at intermission.

Zalgiris’s big lead was gone for good with Thomas Walkup’s three-pointer to even things at 39-39 to start the second half. Vezenkov followed with back-to-back triples and Olympiacos was ahead 45-43. The Reds kept pushing offensively with Dorsey and Papanikolaou draining three-pointers in an 18-4 surge to close the third quarter with a 63-49 advantage. Mudiay’s three-point play started the fourth quarter, but the hosts were not fazed with Sloukas knocking down two more three-pointers and Larentzakis hitting another in an 11-4 surge for a 78-58 cushion. And the rest of the game was just cosmetics.

Pivotal performer - Kostas Sloukas

Kostas Sloukas was not only Olympiacos’s top scorer in Friday’s win over Zalgiris with 17 points but he also drained 3 three-pointers off the bench while offering up 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. The 17 points was a season-high for Sloukas and they were the most since he tallied 17 points in Round 22 last season against AX Armani Exchange Milan. Sloukas was also very efficient as he went 4-of-5 on 2-pointers and 3-of-5 from long range - though he missed his only free throw.

Mudiay with best showing thus far for Zalgiris

Emmanuel Mudiay will be a major part of Zalgiris’s attempts to win games this season, and against Olympiacos the exciting guard had his best game thus far. He collected 19 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and just 1 turnover in more than 25 minutes. That came two days after he went scoreless with four missed shots, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 turnover in 17 minutes against Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. Mudiay, who is making his European debut this season, had 12 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in the season opener against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and then picked up 4 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in 13 minutes against Zenit St Petersburg.

Telling numbers - Olympiacos finally shoots well from long range

Olympiacos came into the game having struggled thus far this season from beyond the arc, hitting just 22 of 80 three-pointers (27.5%). Georgios Bartzokas’ men looked to be in for another poor night after knocking down just 2-of-7 triple attempts (28.6%) in the first quarter against Zalgiris. But then seven Olympiacos players drained at least one three-pointer - nine players attempting at least one - including Giannoulis Larentzakis and Kostas Sloukas who both made three three-pointers. All told, the home side connected on 14-of-28 three-pointers for an outstanding 50.0%.

Kostas Sloukas - Olympiacos Piraeus - EB21
Friday, October 15, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; OBRKNEZEVIC, UROS ; SHEMMESH, SEFFI
Attendance: 6835
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus12242720
Zalgiris Kaunas23161019
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus12366383
Zalgiris Kaunas23394968
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WALKUP, THOMAS 22:33 6 1/2 1/3 1/2 1 1 2 4 1   1   1 4 13
2 DORSEY, TYLER 23:37 7 0/4 2/5 1/2 2 2 4 3   1     2 1 4
4 LOUNTZIS, MICHALIS 3:07   0/1                         -1
5 LARENTZAKIS, GIANNOULIS 17:06 13 2/2 3/4     2 2 2   3     2 1 12
10 FALL, MOUSTAPHA 21:02 4 2/4   0/2 1 3 4 1     2   2 1 6
11 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 18:45 17 4/5 3/5 0/1 1 4 5 2 1 1     3 2 19
12 MARTIN, HASSAN 4:57   0/1     2   2   1 1   1   1 1
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 15:12 12 1/5 2/3 4/4 2 4 6     1     1 4 15
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 24:48 7 3/5 0/2 1/2 3 4 7 1 1       1 3 13
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 22:54 10 2/3 2/4   1 2 3           1 1 10
17 JEAN-CHARLES, LIVIO 14:01   0/2 0/1   1 1 2 1   1 2   1 1 1
77 MCKISSIC, SHAQUIELLE 11:58 7 2/4 1/1 0/1       1         2 2 5
Team           1 3 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 83 17/38 14/28 7/14 15 26 41 15 4 9 5 1 16 21 101
        44.7% 50% 50%
Head coach: BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 BLAZEVIC, MAREK 12:57 9 3/6   3/4 5 3 8     2 1   4 2 10
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 18:20   0/3 0/2         1   1   1   1 -5
7 NEBO, JOSH 25:47 12 5/5   2/2 2 2 4   1 1     3 1 14
8 MUDIAY, EMMANUEL 25:18 19 4/7 2/7 5/7 1 2 3 4 1 1   1 3 4 16
9 KALNIETIS, MANTAS 17:52 6 0/3 1/2 3/3   3 3 7   3   2 2 1 6
16 LUKOSIUNAS, KAROLIS 1:25     0/1           1            
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 25:13 14   4/5 2/3   1 1           3 1 11
34 CAVANAUGH, TYLER 28:11 8 4/7 0/2   1 1 2 2       1 2 2 6
55 GIFFEY, NIELS 18:29   0/1 0/2     1 1 1   2     3   -6
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 26:28   0/1 0/3   1 4 5 3   1     1 4 6
Team             6 6     1         5
Totals 200:00 68 16/33 7/24 15/19 10 23 33 18 3 12 1 5 21 16 63
        48.5% 29.2% 78.9%
Head coach: ZDOVC, JURE

Head Coaches

BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus

“Our third quarter was outstanding but we improved our defense in the second quarter and went into the locker room only down three points. But we were really terrible in the first quarter. It’s a win that I really appreciate. I have to give credit to the players. Two days ago we played a game in overtime against Barcelona with a lot of intensity. I’m very happy about the win. Congratulations to the guys.”

“I want to congratulate our fans and players. The fans really created a warm atmosphere. And the players had a solid performance for three quarters. It started for us in the second quarter. It was good to be only losing by three points after the first half with the way we approached the game in the first quarter. I tried to tell the players there are no easy games if you are too loose and don’t have any energy, if you don’t play with physicality. It was good that I had a chance to limit the minutes of some players after such a demanding game against FC Barcelona two days ago.”

ZDOVC, JURE
Zalgiris Kaunas

“On offense in the second half we lost control completely, and we stopped playing defense. We lost our aggressiveness. They hit some shots, and we just collapsed.”

“I’m very disappointed how we lost the game. We had a good start, we had good minutes. But in the second half we showed the complete opposite: effort, approach, everything. We lost control on offense. We stopped playing defense. We didn’t have any communication and we collapsed. Congratulations to Olympiacos. We have a lot of work to do. We are not looking for excuses. We’ll try next week to get our first win.”

Players

VEZENKOV, SASHA
Olympiacos Piraeus
“The most important thing is we turned the game in the second half. We didn’t play good in the first quarter and most of the first half. But we played an amazing third quarter and we won a difficult game, which was a must-win game for us. We had a really demanding game with Barcelona - one of the best teams in the league. We didn’t enter today’s game as we should have. But the coach gave us the orders at halftime and we did our best and won this game.”
SLOUKAS, KOSTAS
Olympiacos Piraeus
“Our reaction was really good because Zalgiris came here and played aggressively. We came back after a really bad start for us - they hit big shots. We found our rhythm and played our game. I have the feeling that with our fans we can beat anybody. This is so important.”
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