Olympiacos finished off their double week in the EuroLeague in style, winning in Bulgaria against Hapoel Tel Aviv 89-85 in Round 37.
Hapoel Tel Aviv started off this double week in the EuroLeague tremendously with a victory against the defending European champions Fenerbahce, and were looking to do the same against Olympiacos, the top seed in the competition at the moment. They would have to do it without Tyler Ennis, Tomer Ginat and Itay Segev. Conversely, the Greek side toppled Real Madrid dominantly at home earlier in the week to break away to the top of the table, but now had to find a way to win in Bulgaria without Evan Fournier, along with the already confirmed absences of Keenan Evans, Monte Morris, and Tyrique Jones. They were able to count on the services of big man Moustapha Fall however.
Early on, the side of Dimitris Itoudis took a dominant 11-0 lead through the scoring of Elijah Bryant and Vaslije Micic. Quickly, Olympiacos responded through the furious scoring of Tyler Dorsey to come back into the game, with the guard continuing his amazing scoring form after previously setting a career high against Real Madrid. The hosts even went nearly four minutes without scoring, as Olympiacos took a slight 22-18 lead at the end of the first.
Micic and Antonio Blakeney took the reigns to be the primary scoring options in the second quarter but the interior power of Alec Peters, Donta Hall and Nikola Milutinov took advantage of the soft paint defense of the hosts to take a 51-48 lead heading into the half-time break despite top scorer Sasha Vezenkov being scoreless in the first half. This happened through a ferocious slam by Hall off an alley-oop pass from half-court by Thomas Walkup with less than half of a second remaining in the half.
Name a better way to end the half if you can 🤯
— EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) April 9, 2026
Donta Hall slams it home after a great dish from Thomas Walkup 👀#MotorolaMagicMoment @Moto I @Olympiacos_BC pic.twitter.com/oQ42RfSuej
It was a tremendously physical game with Olympiacos having only six free throw attempts by half-time while the Israeli side didn’t shoot their first free throw until nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. The teams traded baskets in the third quarter but Vezenkov finally woke up to score 10 points in the period, and a Kostas Papanikolaou three made it a 73-67 lead for the team of Georgios Bartzokas entering the final period.
A seesaw battle continued with a good contribution coming from both benches as Corey Joseph and Tai Odiase gave new life to their respective teams. More baskets from Blakeney, and some three pointers by Collin Malcolm cut the lead to 84-82 with two and a half minutes left. Ultimately, after a lot of contact and chaos under the rim, Peters grabbed a crucial offensive rebound to put the team back ahead by 4 with 50 seconds left.
Hall then had a key defensive stop on Dan Oturu, and after Dorsey hit a free throw to make it a two possession game, Hapoel Tel Aviv stumbled on their final possession and the de facto visitors won in Bulgaria, much to the happiness of the crowd which came out to support Olympiacos in big numbers.
Απίστευτο! 10.000 φίλαθλοι στη Σόφια για ένα παιχνίδι regular season! Το ευχαριστούμε είναι λίγο 🙏🏽#OlympiacosBC #WeAreOlympiacos #TogetherWeFight #HTAOLY pic.twitter.com/vbS11Hmifs
— Olympiacos B.C. (@Olympiacos_BC) April 9, 2026
Tyler Dorsey finished with 23 points and five assists, leading all scorers. Alec Peters added 11 points and 8 rebounds as the x-factor. Antonio Blakeney scored 16 points, while Elijah Bryant and Vasilije Micic added 15 and 14 respectively but ultimately fell short of winning.
Olympiacos now has a 25-12 record and is at the top of the standings. They will finish off their regular season against Milano on April 16th. Hapoel Tel Aviv now stands at a 22-14 record, but they have one game less played due to their Israeli derby against Maccabi Tel Aviv being rescheduled due to the political tension in the region. That game will take place in Belgrade on April 12th, and then Itoudis’ team will travel to France to finish their regular season in Monaco on April 17th.
2/2 in the double week
— EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) April 9, 2026
Another dub for @Olympiacos_BC ✔️#EveryGameMatters pic.twitter.com/epDQvOxZY3
