Nikola Kalinic scored a career-high 25 points and dished 6 assists to lead Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade to a hard-fought 81-76 victory over Olympiacos Piraeus on Thursday night at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in the Serbian capital.
Kalinic fuels Zvezda over Olympiacos , 81-76
The Zvezda star scored 8 in the fourth quarter alone, during which the score was tied five times before Kalinic scored and assisted in a game-breaking 9-1 run that made it 78-70 with 1 minute to go. Luka Mitrovic contributed 12 points and 8 rebounds in the winning effort, Dejan Davidovac added 11 points and Nikola Ivanovic and Nate Wolters scored 10 each. The win was Zvezda’s second in a row to take its record to 6-8. Tyler Dorsey paced the Reds with 18 points and Kostas Sloukas and Sasha Vezenkov each scored 12 in the defeat, which snapped Olympiacos’s three-game winning streak and made it 9-5 on the season.
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After each team committed a turnover on its opening possession and scored just 1 basket in the first 2 minutes, the hosts heated up as Davidovac scored 5 points in a 7-0 run for a 9-2 lead. Kostas Papanikolaou drilled a three to revive the Reds, but Zvezda seemed to have an answer for every Olympiacos shot. After Vezenkov and Kalinic traded threes, it was 17-10. A three by Dorsey and second-chance score for Vezenkov drew the visitors within 2. Free throws by Ivanovic made it 19-15 after 10 minutes.
Hassan Martin scored Olympiacos’s first 2 baskets of the second quarter to close the gap again. A three by Ivanovic gave the hosts some breathing room at 26-21. Mitrovic contributed a block and a hook shot to keep the Reds at bay. Shaquielle McKissic responded with a three-pointer to get Olympiacos within 28-26 midway through the second quarter. Kalinic stepped up for the hosts with a three-pointer and a layup – both courtesy of Stefan Markovic assists – to stretch the margin back to 6. Olympiacos rallied through a three by Giannoulis Larentzakis to take its first lead, 34-35, on Vezenkov's free throws. Kalinic answered, but a triple by Sloukas made it 36-38 at the break.
Vezenkov started the second half with a three from the corner, but Zvezda responded through a Davidovac three. The same player connected from deep a minute later – after a three-point play from Branko Lazic – to put the hosts back ahead, 45-43. The lead went back and forth as Dorsey drilled a triple and Kalinic scored in the paint. It was 49-48 midway through the quarter. Dorsey’s third three of the game and a basket by Martin in the paint gave Olympiacos a 4-point edge. After a Zvezda timeout, the hosts heated up with Ivanovic and Kalninic combining for the remaining 7 points of the third quarter. Ivanovic tied it from the line and Kalinic sank 3 free throws with 6 seconds left in the quarter to make it 56-53. Sloukas made a three just after the third-quarter buzzer that did not count.
A basket-plus-foul by Thomas Walkup – his first points of the game – put Olympiacos back on top, 56-58, early in the fourth quarter. The teams settled into a tight duel. Twice Georgios Printezis broke a tie and each time Mitrovic answered with free throws to tie it again. After a monster slam by McKissic, A three by Wolters and a long jumper by Kalinic made it 69-66 and had the Zvezda fans singing. Sloukas, out of a timeout, drilled a game-tying triple but Wolters struck right back with a runner and Kalinic fed Mitrovic for a back-door layup to make it 73-69 with 3 minutes left. After Kalinic put back his own miss and then Wolters found Branko Lazic in the corner for a triple on the one-minute mark, the outcome was decided.