Olympiacos rolls Zvezda to share top spot again

Olympiacos Piraeus regained a share of first place in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague with a comfortable 85-59 victory over visiting Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade on Friday of Round 8. Olympiacos raised its record to 6-2, the same as standings leader CSKA Moscow. Zvezda fell to 2-6 with its fourth straight defeat. Nikola Milutinov paced the winners from the start and finished with a double-double of 13 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Hollis Thompson added 14 points and Ioannis Papapetrou 11 for Olympiacos, which registered its biggest victory of the season. Only Taylor Rochestie reached double digits for the visitors, with 20 points, 13 of which came in the first half.

Milutinov scored 7 points in a row on 3 dunks as Olympiacos shot out to an 11-4 lead. Pero Antic and Janis Strelnieks traded triples, before Georgios Printezis's second basket helped establish the first double-digit lead, 17-7. Despite another Antic three-pointer and one by Rochestie on the buzzer, Strelnieks and Thompson steered Olympiacos to a 22-13 edge after 10 minutes. Rochestie opened the second quarter with his second shot in a row from downtown and fed Nikola Jovanovic for a hook shot at 18-22. Dimitrios Agravanis and Vangelis Mantzaris joined the Olympiacos scorers from the arc, lengthening the lead again to 28-20. But Rochestie was on fire, hitting midrange and long jumpers before passing to Milko Bjelica for a dunk. Papapetrou answered with his own before Brian Roberts drilled back-to-back threes. But James Feldeine and Antic matched both as Zvezda stayed within striking distance at 40-33. Jovanovic countered inside baskets to offset those of Kostas Papanikolaou and Jamel McLean, but Strelnieks returned to finish the half with a layup that left Olympiacos looking good at 47-37.

Olympiacos added to the lead as Printezis answered Rochestie's next three-pointer with his own and Strelnieks downed free throws at 56-41. But Zvezda refused to wilt as Bjelica scored 4 in a row. McLean responded with a pair of fastbreak layups, however, and later baskets by him and Thompson gave Olympiacos its biggest lead yet, 67-49, after 30 minutes. The dynamic did not change as Olympiacos kept climbing to 74-51 early in the fourth quarter while the scoring slowed for both teams. Papapetrou changed that as he made a pair of three-pointers on either side of another from Thompson that made the score 82-57 with 2 minutes left to guarantee a fine finish to a week of solid success for the home team.