The Serbian swingman gave the Italian side the impetus it needed to record its eighth straight home win.
Ognjen Dobric ignited Virtus's come-from-behind win against Olympiacos
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Virtus Segafredo Bologna used yet another fourth-quarter comeback to edge Olympiacos Piraeus 69-67 and remain undefeated in December, getting its fourth victory in as many games. In large part, it had Ognjen Dobric to thank for the win.
Virtus showed great character after a horrible second quarter in which it was outrebounded by Olympiacos 5-18. At halftime, Virtus had hit just 5-of-25 two-pointers and trailed 28-40. Olympiacos still kept a solid lead, 57-65, at the end of the third quarter and had stopped the hosts' first comeback attempt.
Ognjen Dobric came to the fore
Head coach Luca Banchi then found a response through Dobric, who had been scoreless until then. Dobric checked back into the game at the start of the fourth quarter and needed just 44 seconds to score, getting the ball from Daniel Hackett to hit a floater. Once Bryant Dunston followed that with a one-handed slam, Virtus knew it had a chance to come back.
Dobric made sure of that, getting a steal and going coast-to-coast for a layup and burying a couple of three-pointers. He splashed the second one from the right wing to complete Virtus's comeback, 67-65, with under 3 minutes remaining. Not many more points were scored after that: Giannoulis Larentzakis hit a pair of free throws and Hackett sank a jumper from the free-throw line to fix the final score, 68-67, with 44.7 seconds left.
Daniel Hackett’s added motivation
Once the final buzzer had gone, birthday boy Daniel Hackett dedicated the win to a special someone, which made the victory even sweeter for the Virtus faithful.
"This was the biggest prize, the win. I also have to dedicate this victory to my daughter Victoria because today, she went into a small surgery,” explained Hackett. “She is at the hospital watching the game with her mom, so ciao Vicky, this is for you.
"Amazing effort in the second half. We flipped the game completely. I think the effort to stay behind Olympiacos was extremely tough, and we knew it was a hard-nosed game. Our character showed, everybody did some small things to do win the game and it is a pleasure to play with this team."
Dobric scored all 10 of his points in a 7-minute span in which Virtus got back into the game. He had been struggling lately, averaging 2.5 points in the last four games, and it could be a turning point for him.
Above all, Virtus showed great depth and proved to be very unpredictable in the sense of anybody being able to score. On a night in which star forward Toko Shengelia was limited to 6 points, Virtus found new ways to be effective, and that is great news in both the short and long run.