2019-20Regular SeasonRound 19
Olympiacos Piraeus 86
ALBA Berlin 93
January 14, 2020 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Eriksson fires ALBA to victory in Piraeus

ALBA Berlin held on for a hard-fought road win at Olympiacos Piraeus, 86-93, to give newly reappointed home team coach Georgios Bartzokas an unhappy return to Peace and Friendship Stadium. ALBA led by double figures before halftime after a blitz of three-point shooting, but Olympiacos battled back and would have tied the game inside the final minute if Nikola Milutinov had made free throws. Marcus Eriksson led ALBA with 22 points on 6-of-9 three-point shooting and Martin Hermansson paired 18 points with 6 assists. Rokas Giedraitis scored 15 points, Peyton Siva added 12 and Luka Sikma 11. Georgios Printezis had 15 points and 9 rebounds for Olympiacos, while Vassilis Spanoulis led the offense with 14 points and 9 assists. Milutinov added 15 points and Antonios Koniaris scored 11. ALBA improved to 6-13, one game behind Olympiacos at 7-12.

Printezis scored three times inside in the opening minutes to send Olympiacos ahead 8-4. The lead was extended as Spanoulis and Milutinov penetrated to score. Giedraitis pulled ALBA closer from long-range, but Wade Baldwin IV scored twice to protect the home team’s lead. Siva came off the bench to spark ALBA with a pair of baskets and Eriksson’s deep strike helped make it 22-19 after 10 minutes. Downtown daggers from Siva, Eriksson and Kenneth Ogbe sent the visitors ahead at the start of the second and Sikma also netted twice before Hermansson’s three-point play made it 28-35. ALBA’s three-point bombs continued to drop as Eriksson and Giedraitis extended the lead to double digits, but Koniaris answered by finally scoring Olympiacos’s first triple. Hermansson was also accurate from long-range before a three-point play by Augustine Rubit and baskets from Spanoulis were answered by Landry Nnoko and Johannes Thiemann inside, fixing the halftime score at 42-50.

Eriksson scored his fourth and fifth triples to get ALBA moving in the second half, but a pair of close-range scores from Milutinov gave Olympiacos life and a deep strike from Kostas Papanikolaou made it 58-60. Giedraitis delivered a showtime slam, but Spanoulis penetrated to score and free throws from Milutinov tied the game before Sasha Vezenkov beat the third-quarter buzzer from deep for a 71-68 lead. Eriksson soon restored ALBA’s lead with his latest triple and runners from Hermansson and Eriksson made it 71-77. Giedraitis from deep and Sikma from close range extended the margin, but another Koniaris triple – his third – kept the home team hoping. Papanikolaou and Printezis pulled the Reds within back to 85-87 in the final minute, but Milutinov couldn’t tie it from the foul line as he split his free throws. Olympiacos got the offensive rebound, but Spanoulis missed from long range and ALBA iced the game with free throws.

Fourth quarter run seals the deal

Olympiacos ended the third quarter on a high with a triple from Sasha Vezenkov making the score 71-68. But ALBA started the final quarter with a 2-14 run featuring triples from Marcus Eriksson and Rokas Giedraitis and that proved to be crucial as the hosts never led again.

Long-range shooting contrast

There was a contrasting offensive approach from the two teams: ALBA struck 13 of 23 shots from beyond the arc, including 9 of 14 in the first half, whereas Olympiacos didn’t make any three-pointers until the latter stages of the second quarter and ended up shooting just 5 of 18 long-range attempts.

Olympiacos excels in the paint

Despite its poor outside shooting, Olympiacos was able to make the contest close because of its highly accurate inside game. The hosts were good on 19 of 22 two-point shots in the first half and ended up making 29 of 39, with key men Georgios Printezis, Vassilis Spanoulis and Nikola Milutinov converting a combined 17 of 20 two-pointers.

Next round

Olympiacos stays in Piraeus for a Round 20 meeting with another German team, FC Bayern Munich, on Friday. ALBA travels to Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade on the same night.

Martin Hermannsson - ALBA Berlin - EB19
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; SILVA, SERGIO
Attendance: 7233
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus22202915
ALBA Berlin19311825
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus22427186
ALBA Berlin19506893
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 ROCHESTIE, TAYLOR 7:04 2 1/1           2   2         2
2 BALDWIN IV, WADE 13:28 6 3/4   0/1   1 1     1     2 1 3
3 PAUL, BRANDON 19:24 4 2/3 0/2   1 2 3           3 1 2
4 CHARALAMPOPOULOS, VASILIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 KONIARIS, ANTONIOS 26:32 11 1/2 3/4     2 2 2         4 2 11
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 32:56 14 6/7 0/3 2/2       9   3     3 5 18
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 27:31 15 5/5   5/6 1 5 6 1 2 1       4 26
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 14:42 7 2/3 1/5         1   1     1 1 2
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 25:18 15 6/8 0/1 3/4 2 7 9 6     1   3 4 28
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 20:36 7 1/3 1/3 2/2   1 1 1 1 3   2 4 1 -2
21 RUBIT, AUGUSTINE 12:29 5 2/3   1/1   2 2     1     1 1 5
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 86 29/39 5/18 13/16 5 20 25 22 3 12 1 2 21 20 96
        74.4% 27.8% 81.3%
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
ALBA Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 SIVA, PEYTON 15:43 12 2/3 2/3 2/2   1 1 3   2       2 14
5 GIFFEY, NIELS 13:00 4 1/3 0/1 2/2   1 1     2       2 2
8 ERIKSSON, MARCUS 27:58 22 1/2 6/9 2/3   1 1   1         3 22
9 MATTISSECK, JONAS 3:52                         1   -1
10 SCHNEIDER, TIM 2:32                              
15 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 27:23 18 5/8 1/3 5/5   1 1 6   2     2 4 20
25 OGBE, KENNETH 8:14 3 0/1 1/1         1             3
31 GIEDRAITIS, ROKAS 24:51 15 2/4 3/6 2/2   5 5 1 1 1     3 2 15
32 THIEMANN, JOHANNES 15:07 4 2/3     2 1 3 2 1 1   1 4   3
34 CAVANAUGH, TYLER 15:31         1 1 2   2       1 2 5
35 NNOKO, LANDRY 21:20 4 2/3     1 1 2 2   1 2   5   3
43 SIKMA, LUKE 24:29 11 3/4   5/7   4 4 4 1 1     4 6 18
Team             3 3     1         2
Totals 200:00 93 18/31 13/23 18/21 4 19 23 19 6 11 2 1 20 21 106
        58.1% 56.5% 85.7%
Head coach: GARCIA RENESES, AITO

Head Coaches

BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It was nothing unexpected today. Our team is poor defensively, so although we tried hard to come back and I cannot complain about this, before the game we emphasized we could not let them feel confident because they are a great shooting team. But we allowed 9 out of 14 three-pointers in the first half. So in this part of the game we failed. If you look at the game stats, in every category we are better or equal, except three-point shots, which they had more than 50% which is very big for an away team. Basically, there is a defensive problem in our team which is not new. On offense, we had the desire to pass the ball and play together. This was our second goal because we are one of the worst teams in the league for assists, so I cannot complain about our unselfish way of playing. There are no easy EuroLeague games; everybody can beat everybody. My conclusion is that we played their game."
GARCIA RENESES, AITO
ALBA Berlin
"A very good victory for us. We are beginning to recover our players with Peyton Siva just having three weeks out, but the other two players [Tyler Cavanaugh and Johannes Thiemann] were out for two months and they need more time. But in spite of this, we did a good job. We scored a very good percentage in three-pointers, the same way that Olympiacos had a very good percentage in two-pointers - especially in the first half. We are on a good line; after losing three games in a row we have recovered not only tactically but also our energy and focus, and we're in good shape."

Players

PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"We could not manage a great victory. It takes humility and discipline. Everyone understands what the team has to do to win. It's a matter of how you can be useful in the team and have the right chemistry. It's a year of change and it is not easy for players to change philosophies and systems, but it is our job. Everyone has to do their best to help the team."
HERMANNSSON, MARTIN
ALBA Berlin
"It feels really good. It's only our second win in eight games, but we played a lot of good games and were unlucky in some of them. I think we're showing we can play with all the teams and coming to Athens twice and beating both the giants here is amazing. We should play all our games here!"
ERIKSSON, MARCUS
ALBA Berlin
"It one of those games where you get good looks and I was fortunate to make them. We played a great performance, Olympiacos away is always a tough game and we're really happy with the win."
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