2020-21Regular SeasonRound 34
Olympiacos Piraeus 82
Khimki Moscow Region 75
April 09, 2021 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Olympiacos finishes season with a win

Olympiacos Piraeus finished the 2020-21 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season in style by downing Khimki Moscow Region 82-75 at home on Friday. Olympiacos finished 12th overall with a 16-18 record after recording its fifth win in seven games. Khimki finished the 2020-21 season at the bottom of the standings with a 4-30 record. Sasha Vezenkov led the winners with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Georgios Printezis added 14 points and Octavius Ellis 11 while Vasilis Charalampopoulos, Kosta Koufos and Shaquielle McKissic each scored 10 for Olympiacos. Errick McCollum led Khimki with 17 points. Egor Vialtsev added 14 and Sergey Karasev 12. Olympiacos led 24-18 after 10 minutes but Khimki rallied to get a 37-41 margin on a three-pointer by Anton Ponkrashov. Olympiacos regained a 42-41 edge at the break, extending that to 63-55 after three quarters and then again to 79-66 to seal the outcome way before the final buzzer.

Vladislav Sharapov scored down low and Karasev added a jumper for Khimki but Vezenkov soon tied it at 4-4. Karasev buried a rainbow triple that Vezenkov answered with a jump hook and Charalampopoulos added a layup for an 8-7 Olympiacos lead. Vialtsev sank back-to-back three-pointers before Ellis, Vezenkov, and Charalampopoulos fueled an 11-0 Olympiacos run that made Khimki call timeout at 19-15. Evgeny Valiev scored in the paint, Sergey Monia and Charalampopoulos each struck from downtown, and a put-back layup by Vezenkov fixed the score at 24-18 after 10 minutes. Printezis took over with a three-point play and a layup early in the second quarter. Sharapov and Koufos traded layups and McCollum added a three-point play to get Khimki within 31-23. Koufos scored twice in the paint but Monia and McCollum fueled a 0-10 Khimki run, getting help from McCollum and Ponkrashov to give Khimki a 37-41 lead. Kostas Sloukas buried a triple and fed Koufos for a layup that restored a 42-41 Olympiacos lead at the half.

Vezenkov struck from deep soon after the break to start a 12-0 run that Charalampopoulos finished with a fastbreak layup. Karasev and Ponkrashov tried to change things for Khimki but Ellis gave Olympiacos a 52-48 lead. Karasev kept pacing the guests while McKissic and Vezenkov stepped up to keep the Reds out of trouble, 61-53. Voronov and Printezis traded layups for a 63-55 score after 30 minutes. Printezis scored again early in the fourth quarter. Vialtsev sank his fourth three-pointer, which Vezenkov matched with a layup-plus-free throw. Vialtsev buried a jumper and McCollum added a triple that gave Khimki hope at 70-63, with 6 minutes left. McKissic dunked and Printezis boosted the Reds' lead to 74-63. Evgeny Voronov sank one from downtown but McKissic scored in penetration and a three-pointer by Printezis sealed the outcome, 79-66, with 3 minutes to go.

Pivotal performer

Sasha Vezenkov had yet another big game for Olympiacos, being highly effective at both ends. He finished the game with 20 points on 6-of-8 two-point shooting and 11 rebounds – including a career-high 9 defensive boards – plus an assist, a steal, and 4 fouls drawn for a PIR of 31.

Game-changing moment

Anton Ponkrashov hit a triple from the top of the key for a 37-41 Khimki lead in the first half. Kostas Sloukas answered from downtown, igniting a 12-0 run that extended into the third quarter. Vezenkov joined the three-point shootout and Vasilis Charalampopoulos capped it with a fastbreak layup for a 49-41 Olympiacos lead, giving the Reds full control.

Stellar stat

Olympiacos dominated in the paint, hitting 24-of-35 two-point shots (68.6%). Khimki struggled to score around the basket, making such 13 of 34 two-point shots (38.2%). Olympiacos got 10 steals and Khimki picked up 15 turnovers.

Did you know?

Vassilis Spanoulis became the first player to break the 1,600-assist mark in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history. Spanoulis had 9 assists against Khimki and leads the all-time standings with 1,607. He is also the all-time scoring leader with 4,455 points.

Next game

Both teams finished their respective EuroLeague campaigns on Friday.

Sasha Vezenkov - Olympiacos Piraeus - EB20
Friday, April 9, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; ROCHA, FERNANDO; SHEMMESH, SEFFI
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus24182119
Khimki Moscow Region18231420
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus24426382
Khimki Moscow Region18415575
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 5:43     0/3     1 1 1 1 1       1  
4 CHARALAMPOPOULOS, VASILIS 16:08 10 2/3 2/2         1   2     4 1 5
5 LARENTZAKIS, GIANNOULIS 18:20 1   0/4 1/2   1 1 4 3       1 2 5
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 17:51 1 0/3 0/2 1/2 1 1 2 9   2       2 6
11 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 25:21 5 1/2 1/4     4 4 4 1 2     2 1 7
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 30:00 20 6/8 1/3 5/6 2 9 11 1 1       1 4 31
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 23:52 14 4/4 1/1 3/3 1 3 4 1   1     2 3 19
22 JENKINS, CHARLES 15:32     0/2         1 1       1   -1
31 KOUFOS, KOSTA 10:00 10 5/6   0/3   2 2     1 1     2 10
32 ELLIS, OCTAVIUS 16:08 11 3/3   5/6 2 5 7 1         2 3 19
77 MCKISSIC, SHAQUIELLE 21:05 10 3/6 0/3 4/6 1   1 2 3         3 11
Team                     1         -1
Totals 200:00 82 24/35 5/24 19/28 7 26 33 25 10 10 1 0 13 22 111
        68.6% 20.8% 67.9%
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
Khimki Moscow Region
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 MCCOLLUM, ERRICK 27:08 17 4/11 2/6 3/3   1 1 7 1 5       4 14
7 KARASEV, SERGEY 28:49 12 1/3 2/5 4/4   4 4 4 2 1     1 4 19
8 ZAITCEV, VIACHESLAV 16:37   0/3       5 5 2   1     3 2 2
9 VIALTSEV, EGOR 26:10 14 1/2 4/5     2 2 1   3     4 1 9
12 MONIA, SERGEY 26:59 8 1/1 2/2   1 5 6 2 1       4   13
13 SHARAPOV, VLADISLAV 21:05 4 2/6     2 3 5 1 1 1   1 2   3
14 PONKRASHOV, ANTON 18:44 6 0/2 2/5     4 4             2 7
18 VORONOV, EVGENY 13:50 8 1/2 2/3     1 1     2     3   2
30 VALIEV, EVGENY 20:38 6 3/4     2 1 3 3 1 2     5   5
Team           2 1 3     3          
Totals 200:00 75 13/34 14/26 7/7 7 27 34 20 6 18 0 1 22 13 74
        38.2% 53.8% 100%
Head coach: MALTSEV, ANDREI

Head Coaches

BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"First of all, we need to improve our team for next year. We need quality, because the EuroLeague is really tough. With this opportunity, I would like to congratulate the teams that achieved the playoffs and also to those teams who competed in this really tough season, for everybody, really hard. For me, maybe the hardest EuroLeague ever. A lot of good teams and a lot of good players. All this situation with the COVID didn't help us to get better. We finish with a win, it was important to close the season with a win, but we kind of lost because the importance of the game was not really high. Spanoulis is a EuroLeague legend and it is important what he is finally going to do, but I don't have any news or any idea about what he is thinking. He will talk with the staff, with our owners, with his family, and he will decide."
MALTSEV, ANDREI
Khimki Moscow Region
"Congratulations to Olympiacos for the win. It was a tough game and I am proud of my players. I think it was a very interesting game. We won in the second and fourth quarters. It was interesting, but we lost today and it is the end of the EuroLeague for us. We are ready to play in the VTB League."

Players

VEZENKOV, SASHA
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It doesn't feel good because we didn't make our goals. Our goal from the beginning of the season waas to go to the playoffs. We didn't make it, so I think nobody is satisfied in the team. We have to see what went wrong in order to learn the lesson and be better next season."