Olympiakos triumphs in Turkey
Olympiakos clinched the top spot of its Euroleague pool through its victory over Fenerbahce/Ulker with an 80-65 score in Turkey.
This means that Olympiakos will enjoy the home advantage in the quarterfinals of the competition that lead to the Final Four.
Fenerbahce had beaten Olympiakos by 14 points in Piraeus, but the players of coach Dusan Ivkovic managed to cover that difference as well, so the results of the last round of games will not matter.
The Reds produced an impressive performance against a nervous Turkish side in Istanbul and created a defensive wall that the hosts could not overcome.
Olympiakos had a strong start to the game, leading by up to seven points, but the Turks cut the deficit in the second period and ended the first half with a two-point advantage (36-34).
Fenerbahce led by up to 12 points with 14 minutes to go, but that was when Olympiakos took the upper hand and turned things in its favor.
A series of successful shots by the Greeks from the start of the fourth period added to the anxiety of the home side, which could not score against the Reds’ defense.
Zoran Erceg led the scoring for Olympiakos (21 points including five three-pointers) with the Greeks registering a partial score of 26-10 in the fourth period.
Olympiakos achieved this important win even through it was playing without injured Yiannis Bourousis, Marko Keselj, Panayiotis Vassilopoulos and Yotam Halperin.
Forwards Rasho Nesterovic and Loukas Mavrokefalidis added 16 points each for Olympiakos.
The home fans showered the Olympiakos players with various objects at the end, after Thodoris Papaloukas dedicated the victory to the Turks at the stands, who were jeering at him for most of the game.
