Olympiacos rolls past Milan, 91-70

Olympiacos Piraeus used a big third quarter to run away with a 91-70 victory over visiting AX Armani Exchange Milan on Friday and win back-to-back games for the first time this season. Kostas Papanikolaou led the way with 17 points for Olympiacos, which took the third quarter 31-16 for its third victory in the last four games to improve to 5-6. Vassilis Spanoulis made Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history as he collected 14 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists, while Nikola Milutinov posted 13 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals for a performance index rating of 30. Sergio Rodriguez collected 14 points and 3 assists for Milan, which fell to 7-4 with its third defeat in the last four contests. Nemanja Nedovic added 12 points and Vladimir Micov chipped in 11 in his 200th EuroLeague game.

Papanikolaou scored the game's first 5 points, to which Milan responded with a 0-7 run for its first lead. Papanikolaou hit another basket as the hosts jumped back in front 11-9, only to see Shelvin Mack and Nedovic both knock down three-pointers in Milan's 4-10 finish to the first quarter to lead 15-19. After Olympiacos went 0 for 9 from three-point distance in the first quarter, Sasha Vezenkov and Brandon Paul both hit from downtown to start the second and even the score at 21-21. Vezenkov then added a basket as Olympiacos moved ahead 25-23. The lead soon flipped again as Rodriguez hit a three-pointer and a layup for a 30-35 Milan advantage. Olympiacos managed a few defensive stops and finished half with a 10-2 run featuring 5 more points from Papanikolaou to enter the break ahead 40-37. Rodriguez opened the second-half scoring to trim the deficit to 40-39, but Milan's offense stalled thereafter. Milutinov converted a three-point play and Papanikolaou nailed a triple as the Olympiacos lead grew to 46-39. Antonios Koniaris and Spanoulis both hit from long range, as well, then Spanoulis tallied 4 more points in an 18-5 surge over 6 minutes to see Olympiacos pull away 58-44. Taylor Rochestie and Paul both nailed triples to extend the margin to 71-53 after 30 minutes. Augustine Rubit increased the advantage to 74-53 and Olympiacos did not allow Milan to score until Nedovic made free throws almost 4 minutes into the final quarter. The gap was 78-55 before Jeff Brooks finally scored Milan's first basket of the quarter with 4:30 minutes left. Michael Roll tallied 7 points for the guests down the stretch but Milan could not make a dent in the deficit.

Milestone, season high for Papanikolaou

Kostas Papanikolaou tallied 17 points to move to 1,510 for his EuroLeague career. The scoring outburst was the 29-year-old's best of the season and the most since he picked up 22 points against KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz last season in Round 17.

More history for Spanoulis

Vassils Spanoulis finished with a performance index rating of 17 to move his career PIR to 3,900, taking him past Barcelona legend Juan Carlos Navarro's 3,890 into first place on the EuroLeague all-time leaderboard.

Telling numbers

Olympiacos connected on 63.2% of its two-point shots while turning the ball over just 9 times. The hosts also won the battle of the glass, too, 37 to 23, including 9 offensive rebounds.

Next games

Olympiacos will stay in Greece for its next game but will be heading to rival Panathinaikos OPAP Athens on December 6. Milan meanwhile will look to move to 6-1 at home when it welcomes Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade on December 5.