Reds hold off Darussafaka for important road win

Olympiacos Piraeus turned to its defense and its bench in holding off Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul 71-77 on the road on Friday at Volkswagen Arena. Olympiacos improved its record to 6-4 ,while Darussafaka dropped its third straight game and fell to 5-5. The visitors took the lead for good in the second quarter behind Matt Lojeski and opened a 40-52 lead in the third. Darussafaka rallied with help from three-pointers by Dairis Bertans and Scottie Wilbekin, but Erick Green scored all of his 10 points late in the third and in the fourth quarter to help Olympiacos keep the lead and close out the game. Lojeski scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half and also collected 7 rebounds. Georgios Printezis also scored 15 points and Vassilis Spanoulis added 13 in victory. Will Clyburn paced the hosts with 21 points, Brad Wanamaker netted 11, and Furkan Aldemir collected 10 points and 6 rebounds in defeat.

Spanoulis was pulling all the strings for the visitors at the start of the game. He scored 6 points and dished a pair of assists, and with help from Printezis had Olympiacos up 9-14. Clyburn and James Anderson got Darussafaka going, but the Reds remained in front. A put-back and a corner-three from Lojeski opened a 18-24 edge, but Wanamaker hit from long range to help the hosts cut it to 21-24 after one quarter. The teams traded leads in the second until Lojeski got hot, scoring 8 points, including a pair of triples, in helping Olympiacos built a 28-37 lead. Olympiacos had trouble containing Clyburn, and Wanamaker drove for a basket, but a three-pointer from Kostas Papanikolaou helped the Reds take a 34-43 advantage into halftime. The teams traded baskets in the third before the visitors held Darussafaka scoreless for a full three minutes and a wide-open three from Vangelis Mantzaris gave Olympiacos a 40-52 cushion. Dairis Bertans ended Darussafaka’s drought with a three, before his second triple helped cut the margin to 4 points. Olympiacos went into the final stanza up 51-57, but Wanamaker hit a three, and hooked up twice with Aldemir to get the hosts within 61-63. But Wanamaker committed his fourth personal foul and had to take a seat on the bench. Scottie Wilbekin followed with back-to-back threes for the hosts, but only after Green hit from downtown and Daniel Hackett converted a three-point play for Olympiacos. The visitors had Spanoulis step up again in clutch time; he found Green behind the arc and Printezis in the low post to help the Reds to a 68-76 lead with 1:42 to go, which proved to be a margin too big for the hosts to overcome.