2020-21Regular SeasonRound 13
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 79
Olympiacos Piraeus 81
December 10, 2020 CET: 19:00
Local time: 19:00 ALEKSANDAR NIKOLIC HALL

Printezis lifts Olympiacos late in Belgrade

Georgios Printezis played the hero role once again for his beloved Olympiacos Piraeus by scoring the game-winner in the final seconds to lift the Reds to a 79-81 road win over Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall on Thursday. The visitors trailed by as many as 16 in the first half and led by 9 in the fourth in the thriller. Olympiacos won its second game of the week to improve to 7-5, while Zvezda lost its fourth straight game to fall to 4-9. Printezis led Olympiacos with 16 points, Vassilis Spanoulis scored 14, Aaron Harrison and Kostas Sloukas netted 12 points apiece and Giannoulis Larentzakis scored a personal-best 11. Sloukas also dished 7 assists. Johnny O'Bryant paced Zvezda with 16 points, Corey Walden and Jordan Loyd each scored 13 and Marko Jagodic-Kuridza added 10.


Both teams needed time to find their rhythm with each scoring just once in the first 2 minutes. Walden heated up with a pair of three-pointers and O'Bryant added another as the hosts jumped ahead 14-5. Though Livio Jean-Charles scored to end the visitors' drought, free throws by Ognjen Dobric gave Zvezda a double-digit lead and Dejan Davidovac extended it to 20-7. Jagodic-Kuridza's triple took the difference to 16 before a jumper by Sloukas ended the first quarter at 30-16. Olympiacos got going in the second quarter, though Zvezda kept pace. A Spanoulis triple closed the gap to 37-27 midway through the quarter. The Olympiacos legend did his best to continue the comeback and his free throws made it 45-37 at the break.

Harrison came out for the second half with a hot hand and drained a trio of three-pointers to bring his team within 52-50 midway through the third quarter. Octavius Ellis scored on consecutive possessions to give the visitors their first lead since the opening minutes, 52-54. Threes by Jagodic-Kuridza and Dobric got the hosts back in charge, but free throws by Larentzakis and Printezis kept Olympiacos close. A three by Larentzakis gave the Reds a 61-62 edge at the end of the quarter. Spanoulis and Printezis teamed up on the first two baskets of the fourth to extend the margin. Larentzakis made it a 0-8 start to the quarter before Jagodic-Kuridza's tip-in ended the Zvezda drought. Davidovac also scored on the offensive glass before Loyd completed an 8-0 response to make it 69-70 with a little more than 5 minutes left in regulation. An acrobatic basket by Loyd tied the score at 76-76 with less than 3 minutes to go. O'Bryant pushed Zvezda ahead with free throws with 1:30 on the clock and Printezis evened it with a move in the post at 41.9. Spanoulis split free throws with 8.6 seconds to play to put Olympiacos up 78-79 and after a Zvezda timeout, O'Bryant drew a foul with 6.8 seconds and only made 1 foul shot. Olympiacos got the ball to Printezis, who scored the game-winner with 3.2 seconds remaining.

Telling numbers

Olympiacos overcame its 20 turnovers and allowing Zvezda to take 12 offensive rebounds with excellent shooting. The Reds made 17 of 25 two-pointers (68.0%) and 12 of 23 threes (52.2%). It was its best shooting night of the season in two-pointers and second-best in threes after converting 52.9% against Anadolu Efes Istanbul in Round 6.

Surprise contributor

Giannoulis Larentzakis had played more than 5 minutes in a game only once in his previous five appearances this season, but on this night Coach Bartzokas gave the big guard extended playing time and was rewarded handsomely. Larentzakis made 3 of 4 three-pointers and was fouled on his only drive to the lane, which resulted in 2 free throws made. He spent 15:48 on the floor and finished with a personal-best 11 points plus 2 rebounds.

What's next?

Zvezda remains at home for its next game on Tuesday, December 15 against ALBA Berlin. Olympiacos hosts Valencia Basket the following day in Round 14.

Georgios Printezis - Olympiacos Piraeus - EB20
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: JAVOR, DAMIR; PATERNICO, CARMELO; ALIAGA, JORDI
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade30151618
Olympiacos Piraeus16212519
End of Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade30456179
Olympiacos Piraeus16376281
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
00 O'BRYANT, JOHNNY 21:55 16 2/7 2/4 6/10 2 2 4 2 2 1     4 6 14
2 WALDEN, COREY 29:29 13 1/2 3/5 2/3   2 2 2   2     3 5 13
3 LOYD, JORDAN 31:12 13 3/5 1/7 4/4 1 3 4 5 2 2   1 3 6 16
4 USKOKOVIC, ALEKSA 3:59 2     2/2   1 1 1           1 5
7 DAVIDOVAC, DEJAN 22:50 8 3/9 0/2 2/2 2 1 3 3 1 1   1 3 3 5
10 LAZIC, BRANKO 16:16 3 0/1 1/3     1 1 1         3 1  
11 REATH, DUOP 19:15 7 1/1 1/4 2/2 2 2 4     1     2 1 6
13 DOBRIC, OGNJEN 23:44 5   1/4 2/2       2 3       1 2 8
19 SIMONOVIC, MARKO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 JAGODIC-KURIDZA, MARKO 22:06 10 2/3 2/3   3 1 4           2   10
32 KUZMIC, OGNJEN 9:14 2 1/1               1     3   -2
33 TERRY, EMANUEL DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 79 13/29 11/32 20/25 12 14 26 16 8 8 0 2 24 25 78
        44.8% 34.4% 80%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, SASA
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
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 HARRISON, AARON 17:27 12   4/6     1 1     1     2 2 10
5 LARENTZAKIS, GIANNOULIS 15:48 11   3/4 2/2   2 2           4 3 11
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 26:50 14 2/4 2/3 4/5   5 5 2   5     2 3 13
11 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 32:03 12 3/4 2/5     1 1 7   4     3 5 14
12 MARTIN, HASSAN 17:32 1     1/2 2 4 6     1     3 3 5
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 3:17           1 1               1
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 26:43 16 5/7 1/1 3/5 2 2 4 3   3     3 5 18
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 11:05     0/1     1 1 2   1     2   -1
17 JEAN-CHARLES, LIVIO 17:31 8 4/5 0/1     1 1     1     4   2
22 JENKINS, CHARLES 8:56     0/1     1 1   1 2         -1
32 ELLIS, OCTAVIUS 14:27 4 2/2     1 3 4   1 1 1   2 2 9
77 MCKISSIC, SHAQUIELLE 8:21 3 1/3 0/1 1/2       1     1     1 2
Team           1 4 5     1         4
Totals 200:00 81 17/25 12/23 11/16 6 26 32 15 2 20 2 0 25 24 87
        68% 52.2% 68.8%
Head coach: BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS

Head Coaches

OBRADOVIC, SASA
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"We should be a bit unhappy and sad about the opportunity to win this game. I think we had a chance, especially after the great start… With our great energy and great fight, we had the opportunity to finish the game in our favor. It didn’t happen. We need to look forward and see the next chances."
BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"Like every win in the EuroLeague, it was very important. You cannot underestimate anybody. You cannot calm down ever. Everybody is so strong. We saw it today. Red Star played an extremely good game with intensity, with fighting spirit, so we needed to play really well in the second half using different players from the previous game, basically, with Barcelona because we wanted match up the energy… We need to say that we didn’t do a bad job this week. Two games away and we won them both."

Players

SLOUKAS, KOSTAS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"We knew they were going to press because we played a difficult game two days ago against Barcelona, but I think we put on the floor our quality, we played smart and we won a very difficult game."
PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It was a very difficult game because we had a back-to-back [game] week. We had a very good win against Barcelona, so we had to concentrate more to play against a very good, very tough team. They have chemistry, they play very well together, so all those ups and downs were normal. It's a very important win for us and we will continue. We played more emotional in the second quarter. We moved the ball more, we scored some important shots, we played much better defense and we played as a team. That was most important... When Coach trusted me [to take the last shot], I had to take a good decision, to find my empty player, take the responsibility and finally, I was lucky."