Olympiacos come up short in Saint Petersburg
EUROLEAGUE REGULAR SEASON - ROUND 21
In Saint Petersburg, Olympiacos’ playoff hopes took a major hit, as the Greeks suffered a 91-87 loss to Zenit on the road in the EuroLeague regular season.
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Last week, Giorgos Bartzokas’ troops gave themselves hope in the EuroLeague playoff race with a vital triumph over Bayern Munich in Piraeus, but they subsequently conceded a disappointing loss in Russia on Thursday evening against a resurgent Zenit side. As a result of this defeat, Olympiacos languish in 13th place of the regular season standings with a poor 8-13 record, as their dreams of reaching the post-season continue to diminish even further.
Zenit, who are suffering from a terrible start to the campaign, are 16th in the table with seven wins and 14 losses. The Saint Petersburg side did beat Olympiacos at the Peace and Friendship Stadium earlier in the season as well.
For Zenit, Evgeny Voronov stood out with 21 points, while Colton Iverson tallied 12 rebounds.
Vassilis Spanoulis (31 points), Giorgos Printezis (20 points) and Kostas Papanikolaou (20 points) were all impressive for Olympiacos. Only five players scored points for the Erythrolefki at the Sibur Arena.
Next week, Olympiacos will face Baskonia in Greece, while Zenit make the tricky trip to Barcelona.
THE MATCH
Olympiacos initially made a strong start to proceedings. Attacking well, the Greek giants scored 27 points to sneak a three-point lead, but Zenit did improve in the second to earn a 45-43 advantage at the break.
A bad third quarter, which saw Zenit move eight points ahead of their opponents, made life very difficult indeed in Saint Petersburg for Olympiacos.
Nevertheless, to their credit, Olympiacos showed fight in the fourth quarter. With 13 seconds remaining, they were within three points of Zenit as Spanoulis nailed a trademark three-pointer, but the Russians held on for dear life.
