LeDay leads Olympiacos in blowout

Olympiacos Piraeus used a huge night from Zach LeDay and a big third quarter to defeat visiting Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 92-70 on Friday. Its third consecutive win lifted Olympiacos to a 6-4 record and a share of the fifth place in the standings, while Buducnost dropped to a 2-8 record. The star of the night was LeDay, who scored 15 of his career-high 28 points in the final 4 minutes of the third quarter, turning a 13-point lead into a blowout. LeDay also had 8 rebounds, while Vassilis Spanoulis scored 17 points in victory. Nemanja Gordic had 14 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds for Buducnost.

The teams traded baskets in the early going with Georgios Printezis hitting a triple for Olympiacos and Nikola Milutinov scoring twice inside, but Gordic and Alen Omic had Buducnost going, too. Earl Clark hit from downtown to make it 10-13 for the visitors. Spanoulis had a three-point play for the hosts, and even though Gordic answered with a triple, LeDay scored inside and Janis Timma knocked down a three-pointer that put Olympiacos up 25-20 after 10 minutes. Buducnost regained the lead by scoring the first 6 points of the second quarter, but Olympiacos was lethal inside, making 12 of its first 13 two-point attempts. LeDay scored 6 points to help open a 34-26 advantage. Omic snapped a 9-0 Olympiacos run, but the hosts still increased the lead to 40-30 before Edwin Jackson scored a runner and a triple to make it 44-37 at halftime. Olympiacos broke the game wide open at the start of the third quarter with a 13-0 run, which included a triple from Kostas Papanikolaou that increased the Reds lead to 57-37. Gordic snapped that run with a triple, and Suad Sehovic had a three-pointer that cut it to 60-47. But LeDay scored 15 points before the end of the quarter, including 13 consecutively, and almost single-handedly increased the margin to 76-51. The visitors never threatened in the fourth quarter with the margin increasing to as much as 82-55 before Olympiacos closed out the game.

Third quarter

Olympiacos won the third quarter 32-14, dishing 11 assists while making 8 of 11 two-pointers and 4 of 7 threes. Olympiacos also outrebounded Buducnost 12-4 in that quarter, not allowing the visitors a single offensive rebound.

Pivotal performer

LeDay not only had 28 points, but did it by making 7 of 8 two-pointers and 2 of 3 triples. He also pulled down 8 rebounds and finished with a PIR of 42, the highest by an Olympiacos player this century. All of that in just 21 minutes and 16 seconds on the floor.

Scoring in double digits

Georgios Printezis collected 11 points and 8 rebounds, while Nikola Milutinov had 10 points and 7 rebounds for Olympiacos. Earl Clark was the top scorer for Buducnost with 15 points and Edwin Jackson netted 12.

Up and down inside the arc

Olympiacos opened the game making 12 of 13 two-point shots, then finished the first half making just 3 of its next 13 attempts inside the arc. In the second half the Reds shot 15-for-21 on two-pointers.

Up next

Next week on Thursday, Buducnost hosts FC Barcelona Lassa for the first time in almost two decades, while Olympiacos travels to face Zalgiris Kaunas, the team it lost to in the EuroLeague Playoffs last season.