By the hand of Sasha Vezenkov, Olympiacos was victorious on Thursday with 74-72 from the home of Zalgiris Kaunas, continuing its progress to remain in first place in the EuroLeague.
This win means the Reds became the first team to mathematically secure their presence in the playoffs.
On the other hand, the Lithuanians after tonight’s defeat dropped to 15-14 in ninth place.
“I felt good, I felt confident as soon as the guys trusted me and the coaches gave me the ball,” Vezenkov said.
He finished with also eight rebounds, two assists, and two steals. “I always think positive, so I was thinking I would make it [the game-winning shot]. In the beginning, I saw the ball a little bit short but in the end, everything went well.”
Olympiacos head coach Georgios Bartzokas admitted that his team at some point of the game when they were leading simply stopped playing: “We lost our minds a little bit. When we took this difference, we missed a layup in transition and made a lot of mistakes.
“Basically, we stopped running on offense. They made three crucial three-point shots and came back to the game. They had the momentum but we managed to win the game.
“I really appreciate this win; it is always difficult to play here. You couldn’t hear anybody besides you, so it was a great win with this crucial basket by Vezenkov at the end and the last defense. It was really important for us”.
The quarters: 17-15, 34-40, 49-61, 72-74
ZALGIRIS KAUNAS (Kazis Maksvitis) : Lekavicius 5 (1), Hayes, Smits 18 (4), Biroutis 3, Brazdeikis 5 (1), Polonara 5 (1), Dimsa 17 (3), Butkevicius 7 (1), Ulanovas 12 (2)
OLYMPIAKOS (Giorgos Bartzokas): Walkup 3 (1), Keinan 2, Lountzis 3 (1), Larentzakis 7 (1), Fall 6, Vezenkov 25 (2), Papanikolaou 8 (1), Peters 2, Black, McKissick 18 ( 1)
