The center came off the bench and made a huge impact against Panathinaikos
Moses Wright had a night he’ll never forget in the Greek Derby
Article
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 29 of 34
Group Regular Season
w
w
w
w
w
l
w
w
w
l
While Olympiacos Piraeus scored a paltry 7 first-quarter points against Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens to trail 7-17 after 10 minutes, Moses Wright had to watch on from the bench. But, his introduction into the game would soon see the Reds turn things around.
Wright got his first minutes on the night with 8:55 minutes to go in the second quarter and it didn’t take long for him to start impacting things, stealing the ball from a sideline pass before racing away for a big dunk that generated a huge roar inside Peace and Friendship Stadium. That slam cut the deficit to five points, 14-19.
Shortly after, the 25-year-old attacked Panathinaikos star Mathias Lessort and managed to get his layup to go while being fouled. When he converted the free throw to make it a three-point play, the score was 18-19.
The truth is that there was no stopping Wright for a stretch in the second quarter, as he scored inside once again before netting another two baskets to keep Olympiacos close, 24-26. He was perfect from the field, too, going 5-for-5 from the field and 1-for-1 from the line en route to 11 points.
When Wright was given a chance to get some rest with 3:22 minutes before halftime, with the score 25-26, he received a standing ovation from the entire crowd inside Peace and Friendship Stadium and, perhaps most importantly, had helped completely shift the Reds’ mindset.
Perhaps surprisingly, Wright would not enter the game again until the fourth quarter got underway. While Olympiacos had taken its first lead of the night with the first basket of the second half, Panathinaikos was making a fightback that needed to be stopped. Enter: Wright.
Helping put the game to bed
Kostas Sloukas had cut the gap to three points, 55-52, with 5:51 minutes remaining, then Wright caused the roof to come off Peace and Friendship Stadium by posterizing Lessort in a play that will be repeated time and time again.
The Greens kept charging, but Wright was always on hand to offer a response, be it scoring a floater (59-54), dunking once again (63-59) and, last but not least, scoring a put-back layup (67-60) to put the win on ice with 30 seconds to go. The Reds would go on to grab a 71-65 victory.
When all was said and done, Wright had set a new career high by scoring 19 points, beating his previous best mark of 15, which came on his debut in Round 24. He was 9-for-9 from two-point territory and 1-for-3 from the charity stripe, yet afterward he only had one thing in his mind: the fans.
“I’ve got to thank the fans. The fans bring the energy, I just try to match what they do – they go crazy every time we score, we get a stop, so that just hypes everyone up,” he commented.
Thursday night was Wright’s sixth Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game in an Olympiacos jersey and his first Greek Derby. If he wasn’t too well-known beforehand, he certainly is now.