Impressive Olympiacos overpower SLUC Nancy 91-78: Euroleague Recap (Part 2)
The game got off to a slow start as both SLUC Nancy and Olympiacos struggled to find basket in the first minute.
Akin Akingbala scored first point of the game through a free throw in the second minute and then Jamal Shuler followed him with a layup, however it was immediately countered by Pero Antic and Lazaros Papadopoulos, who nailed back
to back layups, that provided Olympiacos an early 4-3 lead.
John Linehan and Kalin Lucas drilled three from their respective teams on the next possession, but a jumper by Jamal in the 4th minute won back Nancy a 1 point 8-7 lead. Olympiacos however rattled off a 5 point run,
consisting of a downtown strike from Pero and a driving layup by Vassilis Spanoulis, to get ahead by 4 points 12-8.
Olympiacos kept the French side under pressure for this rest of the period and were leading by 5 points in the 10th minute. Two free throws by Nicolas Batum before the buzzer however helped Nancy in reducing the deficit
and by the end of quarter Olympiacos were leading 25-22.
The first 5 minutes of the second quarter belonged to Olympiacos again as they managed to reel off a 10-2 spurt, extending their lead to 11 points. However in five minutes that followed, Nancy pulled back things courtesy of Adrien
Moerman’s two three-pointers. Nancy shaved off their deficit quickly and came within two points before a pair of free throws from Kalin Lucas ensured that Olympiacos finished the first half with a lead of 4 points, 40-36.
In the second half, Nancy started from where they left off in the first and again reached as close as 46-44. That was however as close as they got all night as Olympiacos picked up the ante. They held the opponents to only 8 points
whereas they scored 19 points themselves, including an 8 point burst in the last few moments to get ahead by 15 points 67-52.
Nancy never managed to recover from that surge and midway through the fourth frame, at 73-58, the game was already out of reach. Shuler and Moerman put up a fight and reeled a 7 point spurt but that wasn’t enough as Olympiacos
players kept on chipping with points at the other end.
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