Zalgiris loses to Olympiacos in intense duel 8

Zalgiris Kaunas had a major back-and-forth battle against Olympiacos Piraeus, but came out with a 73-84 loss at home in a Round 19 makeup game on Tuesday.

Josh Nebo collected a career-high 17 points to go with 10 rebounds in the loss while Lukas Lekavicius scored 14 points, Edgaras Ulanovas had 13 and Tyler Cavanaugh 10.

Kostas Papanikolaou scored a season-high 18 points to lead five scorers in double figures. Sasha Vezenkov tallied 16 points, Hassan Martin and Tyler Dorsey both scored 13 points and Kostas Sloukas chipped in 10 points and 6 assists.

Nebo scored the first basket of the game with Papanikolaou hitting back-to-back three-pointers for an early 2-6 Olympiacos lead. Arturas Milaknis’s 3 fouls shots put the hosts back ahead 11-8 only to see the visitors reel off the next 4 points. Zalgiris finished strong with a 9-3 spurt including an Ulanovas triple to lead 20-15 after 10 minutes.

Martin started the second quarter with a big dunk-and-one for the guests. Lekavicius’s triple re-established a 5-point gap. Olympiacos responded with a Sloukas three-pointer and Giannoulis Larentzakis three-point play to reclaim the lead. Zalgiris’s defense started getting some stops and held Olympiacos to just one basket for more than 3 minutes but could only nose ahead 31-28. Olympiacos got back on track and Martin’s jumper had the Reds ahead 31-34. The final 2 minutes were back and forth with three lead changes and two ties before the teams went into halftime deadlocked at 39-39.

Moustapha Fall and Nebo swapped three-point plays to begin the second half and the game remained tight for the entire third quarter with Nebo adding 4 points to his account and Dorsey also getting 4 as the score was even 50-50. Papanikolaou’s three-point play was answered by a triple from Paulius Jankunas. Joffrey Lauvergne chipped in 4 points to help Zalgiris grab the lead, 59-58, after 30 minutes.

Dorsey opened the final frame and Papanikolaou and Dorsey added three-pointers as Olympiacos surged ahead 59-66. After Cavanaugh finally got the hosts on the board after more than 2 minutes, Martin’s layup made it 61-69. Zalgiris was not done yet as Cavanaugh knocked down three-pointers to get within 67-72. Olympiacos took advantage of an unsportsmanlike foul on Nebo with Papanikolaou making both free throws and Vezenkov draining a triple on the ensuing possession for a 69-79 cushion with 3 minutes left. Lekavicius managed to trim the deficit to 73-79, but Sloukas finished off the hosts with a triple for a 73-82 margin with 61 seconds remaining.