Vezenkov helps Olympiakos take Berlin
Sasha Vezenkov gave a stunning performance to lead Olympiakos to victory at Berlin over Alba on Thursday, while another showing by Howard Sant-Roos was not enough for Panathinaikos to beat Red Star Belgrade in Athens on Friday.
In yet one more game in its campaign in the Euroleague, Olympiakos made up in the second half for its first-half shortfall, this time beating Alba 84-80 after trailing 42-37 at half-time.
The Reds were fortunate enough to have Vezenkov in the game of his life, as he scored 31 points (with 6/7 triples) and collected 10 rebounds. This time captain Vassilis Spanoulis was anonymous, with just three points in 20 minutes, but Kostas Sloukas made up for that with 14 points and six assists.
Olympiakos is now on a 14-16 record, rising to 12th.
Panathinaikos, on the other hand, went down 86-82 to Red Star, paying for its poor defending against the Euroleague’s worst offense. This was the Greek champion’s 18th loss in 28 games.
The Greens also had to deal with some hostile refereeing, that may have made the difference in the details and left the hosts without their coach due to two technicals against Oded Kattash.
Sant-Roos scored 21 for the Greens, who are still missing prolific Nemanja Nedovic, while Mario Hezonja was relatively quiet with 15 points from 4/14 field goals.
