The Reds led from start to finish and nailed a hard-fought road win
Vezenkov, Fournier power Olympiacos past Paris, 73-90
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Turkish Airlines EuroLeague leader Olympiacos Piraeus thrashed Paris Basketball 73-90 on Wednesday night at Adidas Arena. The visitors led throughout the game and absorbed Paris’s comeback attempt in the fourth quarter to claim the tiebreaker advantage. With this win, Olympiacos improved to 18-7, while Paris dropped to 14-10.
January MVP Sasha Vezenkov led all scorers with 23 points, 17 of which were scored in the first quarter. Evan Fournier followed with 18 points and Nigel Williams-Goss netted 14, with Giannoulis Larentzakis and Nikola Milutinov adding 10 each off the bench. Nadir Hifi paced Paris with 19 points, TJ Shorts recorded 15, Kevarrius Hayes had 11 and Tyson Ward scored 10.
Game Videos
Eight points from Vezenkov and a three-point play by Moustapha Fall gave the visitors a 5-10 lead. Hayes netted Paris’s first 5 points of the game and TJ Shorts opened his account from inside, but Vezenkov added 5 points to his tally for a 7-15 cushion. Fournier and Yakuba Ouattara traded triples before baskets from Vezenkov and Fournier extended Olympiacos’s lead to 10-22. Nigel Williams-Goss took over with 5 straight points before a Vezenkov three-pointer opened a 20-point lead. Yet, Paris ended the first quarter with a 5-0 run, trimming the deficit to 15-30.
Ward opened the second quarter with a hard-fought bucket, before scores by Shorts and Hifi brought Paris within 21-32. Mikael Jantunen drilled one from deep to extend Paris’s run to 14-2, but Alec Peters responded with a three-point play to make it 24-35. Seven points from Larentzakis off the bench and a layup by Peters gave Olympiacos a 26-45 cushion. Maodo Lo drilled a three and Hayes slammed it home, but a red-hot Larentzakis netted a buzzer-beating triple for a 31-48 lead at halftime.
Paris started the third quarter with a 9-1 surge inspired by Ward, but Fournier netted a midrange jumper to restore a 40-51 lead. Collin Malcolm replied with a layup, but 5 straight points from Fournier made it 42-56. The game turned into an exchange of blows, with Ouattara and Fournier exchanging triples as Olympiacos maintained a 52-64 cushion. But 4 points from Hifi and a layup by Shorts brought Paris within 58-67 heading into the closing quarter.
A couple of buckets from Milutinov sandwiched a Malcolm basket before 3 points by Shorts cut the difference to 65-71. Yet, 7 points from Williams-Goss and a dunk by Milutinov restored a 67-82 lead. Hifi responded with a corner triple, but Vezenkov, Papanikolaou and Fournier scored inside to make it 70-88, practically putting the game to bed.