In a physically, physically and psychologically bad period, Olympiakos had to face AEK in Ano Liossia ahead of Devil’s Week in EuroLeague and away games against Real Madrid and Baskonia. The failures of McKissick, Papanikolaou, Vezenkov and Printezis were huge and unbridgeable, the yellow-blacks played with unimaginable stubbornness and had Andy Rautins in the match of his life, but Costas Sloukas class finally took the lead. 80-74) for Game 14 of the Stoiximan Basket League.

Olympiakos increased to 11-1 (5-1 home and 6-0 away) with Sloukas working miracles (23 points, 4/6 two points, 4/7 three points, 3/4 shots, 3 rebounds, 11 Assists, 1 steal, 1 error in 32 minutes) and are the only ones to stand out along with Livio Jean-Charles and Hassan Martin. AEK (4-2 h and 2-5 a) fell to 6-7, who didn’t have the patient Stefanos Dedas on their bench, was robbed by Pappas – Angola, relied on the impressive Andy Routines and his defense. but stayed strong in the end, had no solutions on the bench and bowed to the talent of Kostas Sloukas.

The race

Olympiacos weren’t bright in the beginning, going for big attacks but from the start they had the lead and control of the game with Jean-Charles excelling. AEK responded 9-0 after the first time-out to make it 14-9 in the eighth minute, finishing the quarter at +3, keeping Piraeus low (5/9 two points, 0/4 three points) and scoring 10 points from the Five mistakes by their opponents, who in turn had absolute zero and only two final passes in this part of the game.

After Eisi made two quick fouls early in the second period, Bartzokas replaced him with Jean-Charles, who scored to make it 18-17 for nine points. However, nothing has changed. AEK continued to play tenaciously and stay in control at a time when Piraeus had poor decisions, easy mistakes, Sloukas very inaccurate and Larentzakis ineffective. Mavroidis shot to 33-27 in 19 minutes, and by halftime he found a team had pierced his ceiling and enduring one of his worst twenty minutes of the season.

A Colom treble early in the second half gave AEK a double-digit lead for the first time (38-27), Rautins made great shots to make it 45-31 in 24′, Kouzeloglou scored 49-34 in 25′ and Rautins kept digging in from the periphery to execute! Olympiacos was in a different stadium but still kept the difference at… reasonable levels. The -8 at the end of the third period helped keep him alive and generated tremendous interest in the fourth quarter of a derby that few expected to turn out like this.

Piraeus used an impressive 15-0 streak to quickly level at 58-58, while Sloukas pulled in another incredible shot to make it 58-61. AEK showed character, took the lead again (64:63 in 35′), but Slouka’s pass to Eisi and the Olympiakos guard’s fourth three (65:73) decided the match a minute and a half before the end.

THE REFEREES: Pitsilkas, Tziopanos, Stamatopoulos

THE TEN MINUTES: 15-12, 35-27, 58-50, 74-80

AEK (Symeonidis): Colom 11 (3/4 two points, 1/5 three points, 2/3 shots, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 errors), Flionis 9 (4/9 two points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists), Routines 23 (1/1 two points, 7/10 three points), Mavroidis 4, Hamer 16 (2/2 two points, 2/4 three points, 6/10 shots, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 4 errors ), Petropoulos, Filippakos, Griffin 6 (2/8 shots), Kouzeloglou 5 (1)

OLYMPIC (Bartzokas): Wookup 8 (1/4 three points), Dorsey (0/2 two points, 0/3 three points, 3 errors), Larentzakis 13 (1/4 two points, 3/8 three points, 2/2 shots, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals), crash 4 (7 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 errors), Zal-Charles 12 (4/6 two points, 1/4 three points, 1/2 shots, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals), Eisi 3 (1), Lountzis 2, Sloukas 23 (4/6 two points, 4/7 three points, 3/4 shots, 3 rebounds, 11 assists), Martin 15 (7/7 two points, 1/2 shots, 3 rebounds, 2 steals)

The team statistics of AEK: 13/25 two points, 11/25 three points, 15/21 shots, 30 rebounds (22 defensive – 8 offensive), 20 assists, 4 steals, 15 errors

Olympiacos team statistics: 19/29 two points, 10/30 three points, 12/18 shots, 33 rebounds (23 defensive – 10 offensive), 20 assists, 8 steals, 10 errors

The next games of the two teams: In the 15th game, AEK plays in Larissa (2/12 at 8:00 p.m.), while Olympiakos host Lavrio at SEF (14/2 at 8:00 p.m.).

Read what George Bartzokas said about Costas Sloukas.