Georgios Printezis hit his trademark floater from the baseline in the dying seconds of overtime to hand Olympiacos a dramatic 66-64 win over Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade to secure home court advantage in the upcoming EuroLeague Playoffs.
As expected between two of the competition’s best defences, it was a low-scoring encounter. But it was also absolutely enthralling as Olympiacos dominated early, holding Red Star to just 17 points in the first half.
The home team however roared back with an 18-0 run over the course of seven minutes in the third quarter, but Olympiacos responded and then the teams could not be separated until Printezis’s jumper settled it.
Playing without Vassilis Spanoulis and Matt Lojeski, Kostas Papanikolaou led Olympiacos with 17 points.
“This is a big win for us because we showed character against a good team, and we are very happy to have home-court advantage, especially as we were without Lojeski and Spanoulis was sick all week,” said Olympaicos coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos.
CSKA Moscow also locked up home court advantage for the Playoffs as they beat Darussafaka Dogus 95-85 in the Russian capital. The result keeps the Turkish side ninth as they face a tough ask to make the post-season.
Milos Teodosic paced CSKA with a double-double of 20 points and 10 assists in the win with Scottie Wilbekin’s career-high 26 points in vain for Darussafaka.
Wilbekin hit eight three-pointers, which is a new EuroLeague season high and a club record.
And Real Madrid also secured a top four finish as they eased past long-time rivals Barcelona 85-69 in the el’ Clasico in the Spanish capital.
Madrid took control of the game from the start, but pulled away for good with a 16-5 run in the second quarter. Barcelona, whose elimination was confirmed 24 hours before remained in the game, hitting 14 three-pointers on 25 attempts on the night, but never came closer than eight points.
Sergio Llull had a masterful performance in the first three quarters, netting 21 points along with six assists, three blocks and two steals, for a career-high performance index rating of +32.
“We are happy for the win and for locking up the home-court advantage in the playoffs, which is very important for us,” said Llull.
“I think that the team did a very good job from the beginning of the game. We were really focused and did not allow them to get in the game.”
Galatasaray grabbed their third win in four games as they overcame Unics Kazan 75-67 in Istanbul with both teams unfortunately playing for mere pride.
Jon Diebler led the winners with 17 points.
