Bizkaia Bilbao began life in the Euroleague with a convincing 76-61 win over Olympiacos at a packed-out Bilbao Arena.
The hosts never trailed, as they slowly but surely pulled away from the Greek giants.
Marco Banic led Bilbao with 22 points with D’or Fischer grabbing eight rebounds to go with his 16 points as the Euroleague debutants outplayed last season’s quarter finalists from jump start.
“This is the debut we always dreamed about,” Banic said afterwards.
“I have to congratulate everyone for having made this big dream happen. It’s a result of the work and the great crowd we have.”
Indeed the crowd was behind their heroes tonight, as they made life difficult for their opponents from the beginning, holding Olympiacos scoreless for the opening five minutes of the contest before Pero Antic scored.
It was a slow opening though. Bilbao couldn’t hit any of their shots, but they took the first ten minutes, leading 18-11.
The second period was a more open affair, Olympiacos gaurd Vassilis Spanoulis scored in the lane to narrow the gap to three points at 22-19, but the hosts swung back. Aaron Jackson drained a long two to extend Bilbao’s lead to 31-23 as the crowd were getting louder with each second that ticked by.
Spanoulis silenced the 9,000 strong with a triple, but it didn’t last, Kostas Vasiliadis hit a three of his own, and Bilbao led going into the half-time break 37-31.
Bilbao’s six-point advantage was trimmed down to just a field goal, with Spanoulis hitting to make it 41-39. Despite the constant lead trimming though, Olympiacos never found a way to take the lead, as the hosts stood guard well.
The Greeks lost their cool towards the end of the third with a foul and a technical called on Dimitrios Katsivelis, reuslting in four fouls shots from Banic, all drained. Bilbao comfortable at 60-49 heading to the final stanza.
Despite a few runs from the visitors, they looked a beaten side, proven with fast-break lay-ups and an alley-oop slam with a Josh Fisher lob to Fischer. This made it 71-57 and the game was safe from there.
“We attacked the rim, as they had a weakness there,” said Bilbao coach Fotios Katsikaris. “The team has shown that it wants to have fun and enjoy, but also that we are here to compete.”
