Fenerbahce defeated Olympiacos 79:77 in the sixth round of the EuroLeague, and the match was defined in every sense by Dyshawn Pierre.
Fenerbahce started the game with a 13:1 run, with Dyshawn Pierre hitting three three-pointers, and Olympiacos couldn’t score a field goal for a whole four minutes. Isaiah Canaan ended that scoring drought with a three-pointer, followed by Alec Peters scoring two points. Quickly, Nick Calathes found Georgios Papagiannis in transition, and Marko Guduric made it 20:9. Then, Pierre scored an incredible basket while drawing a foul. The American player scored 14 points in this quarter. Fener had an excellent first quarter, leading 29:14 after the first 10 minutes.
Moustapha Fall opened the second quarter with an easy basket. Then, Calathes scored another incredible two-pointer from a special play. The game slowed down a bit. The play was interrupted by fouls, and longer possessions were played. Nikola Milutinov and Scottie Wilbekin both scored their first points. Fener extended their lead to plus 16 with a basket from Jonathan Motley. Olympiacos somewhat managed to get back into the game, and at halftime, the score was 46:33 in favor of Fenerbahce. What was unfortunate for Dimitris Itoudis’s team was Pierre’s injury.
Fenerbahce’s lead was slowly but surely melting away. Georgios Bartzokas’s players scored 13 points in the first four minutes. The ‘Canaries’ struggled offensively, and Kostas Papanikolaou took charge of the attack. The team from Piraeus came within three points, but Calathes took matters into his own hands and made a crucial basket. The reigning Greek champions even closed the gap to just one point, and then Tyler Dorsey made three free throws. In the end, the score was 59:53 in favor of the home team.
Olympiacos couldn’t manage to take the lead, but they came very close. There were many fouls on both sides, and the game became quite nervous. Free throws were a common sight, and Fenerbahce’s lead didn’t grow beyond three to five points.
Finally, the Red-Whites equalized through Milutinov, but then Papagiannis made a crucial three-pointer, which was answered in kind by Nigel Williams-Goss. It was followed by a fantastic alley-oop combination Guduric-Papagiannis, and the Greek center then hit another three-pointer, his third. Then a long video review followed to determine the ball possession, which went to Olympiacos, and in the last second, Williams-Goss missed the chance for overtime.
The Greek player was the star of the game, scoring 15 points. Injured Pierre ended the game with 14 points, all of them in the first quarter. Peters and Canaan stood out for the Piraeus team, with 19 and 15 points, respectively. Fenerbahce will face Partizan in the next round, and Olympiacos will meet Baskonia.
Venue: Ulker Sports Arena, Istanbul Referees: Nikolic, Petek, Rocha
Fenerbahce– Olympiacos 79:77 (29:14, 17:19, 24:12, 21:20)
Fenerbahce: Papagiannis 15, Pierre 14, Motley 10, Hayes-Davis 9, Dorsey 8, Wilbekin 7, Calathes 6, Madar 6, Guduric 4, Sestina.
Olympiacos: Peters 19, Canaan 15, Williams-Goss 13, Milutinov 12, Fall 7, Papanikolaou, Brazdeikis 4, Larentzakis, Walkup.