Olympiacos 74-76 Barça: Last gasp win in Piraeus

Barça held onto their Euroleague by beating Olympiacos to go 17-6, and are now unbeaten in six games. But this one could have gone either way. With six seconds to go, anything could have happened. Two free throws from Higgins gave Barça the late edge, and thankfully the Greeks narrowly failed to find the basket in their final attack.

Mirotic led the scoring with 16, followed by Higgins (14), Calathes (12) and Oriola (11).

Barça took just four minutes to amass a double-figure lead, and although Olympiacos had cut that in half by the second period, the Catalans found a new gear and were ten ahead at the interval.

Things took a radical turn in the third period. A 15-2 streak, with Ellis and McKissic causing some big damage, suddenly meant the home side were ahead for the first time in the game. Mirotic and Higgins rallied the troops, but all of a sudden we had a very different game on our hands.

Olympiacos edged further ahead (59-54), Barça pulled level (59-59, min 34). Another Greek advance (67-63, min 37), but Calathes and Mirotic find a response (67-67). Sloukas scores a three (70-67), but Higgins does too (70-70)...

Nothing was decided with 44 seconds left. All square and Olympiacos failed to make their possession count and Barça forced a foul and Higgins claimed the points (74-76).

And that proved to the final score, because although Bartzokas had go for a game-winning three right at the end, Barça got off and could celebrate a truly dramatic victory in Greece,

MATCH STATS

Olympiacos: Sloukas (11), Jenkins, Charalampopoulos, Printezis (10), Ellis (8), Harrison (1), Larentzakis (3), Spanoulis (12), Hassan Martin (5), Livio Jean-Charles (6), McKissic (18).

Barça: Calathes (12), Higgins (14), Kuric (3), Mirotic (16), Oriola (11), Davies (10), Westermann (-), Hanga (3), Bolmaro (-), Smits (7), Sergi Martínez (-). 

Periods: 12-21, 18-19 (30-40), 23-10 (53-50). 21-26 (74-76)