Barça 77-69 Olympiacos: The blaugranes strike back
The Barça basketball side levelled up their Euroleague quarter-final tie at 1-1 with Olympiacos thanks to a 77-69 win in the Palau Blaugrana on Friday. Jabari Parker with 24 points top scored for the home side with Vesely and Willy Hernangómez also making important contributions in terms of points for Roger Grimaus team.
Switched on from the start
After defeat in the opening game of the tie on Wednesday, Barça started like a team on a mission on Friday in game two in the Palau Blaugrana. Led by Parker and Hernagómez, the blaugranes scored 11 unanswered points in the opening period to take a 27-14 lead at the end of the quarter in a Palau that right behind their team.
Olympiacos come back
Nevertheless, the Greek visitors showed their mettle in the second period. The team coached by former Barça boss Bartzokas fought back before half time with Peters and McKissic impressive to reduce Barça's lead to 43-37 at the break.
In the third quarter the team exchanged baskets with alarming regularity, however, Parker and Sikma scoring from the outside allowed Barça to maintain their advantage. Olympiacos replied with eight points from Williams-Goss to take the lead at 55-54, the first time they had been in front since early in the opening period.
Jabari Parker, MVP
When Barça most needed, Willy Hernangómez stepped up to score four of their last six points in the quarter to put the home side ahead 60-57 with just a quarter to go. Abrines nailed a three pointer, as did Parker, at the start of the fourth period to send Barça 68-61 up. Bartzokas called a time out but when play resumed Abrines and Parker again scored decisive points to make it 74-64 on a great European night in the Palau. Barça closed out an excellent 77-69 win with the tie heading now to Greece at 1-1 with two decisive games to come in Athens. Before that they must take on Andorra away in the league on Sunday (6.30pm CEST).
MATCH STATS
Barça: 77
Olympiacos: 69
Barça: Rubio (0), Laprovittola (5), Kalinic (5), Parker (24) and Vesely (10) - starting five - Da Silva (0), Brizuela (-), Satroansky (7), Hernangómez (11), Abrines (9), Nnaji (-) and Jokubaitis (6).
Olympiacos: Canaan (2), Walkup (7), Sikma (5), Peters (20) and Fall (3) - starting five - Williams-Goss (10), Wright (6), Larentzakis (0), Brazdeikis (-), Petrusev (6), Milutinov (0) and McKissic (10).