Olympiacos Rally From 28 Down to Beat Valencia 102-97 in Overtime

By Taki Panos

At halftime in Valencia, the scoreboard read 59-34 and the reigning European champions looked like a team still stuck at the airport. By the end of the night, they were celebrating one of the comebacks of the season. On Tuesday night Olympiacos beat Valencia 102-97 in overtime at the Roig Arena in the fifth round of the EuroLeague, as Gazzetta reported, after trailing by as many as 28 points early in the third quarter. Same team, two completely different games.

For anyone new to this matchup, the context makes the result bigger. Olympiacos are the reigning EuroLeague champions, and Valencia came into the night unbeaten at 4-0, chasing the best start in club history. Valencia's own preview called this its toughest test yet and noted that the two sides had the competition's most productive offenses. The Reds arrived off a 3-1 start and a weekend league win over Kolossos, where Jean Montero scored 30. The win lifts Olympiacos to 4-1 and hands Valencia its first loss.

The first half was rough, and I mean properly rough. Valencia opened with a 10-0 run, led 31-17 after the first quarter and kept pouring it on, with Nikola Mirotic and TJ Shorts doing whatever they wanted, per Sport24. Shorts closed the half with a three at the buzzer for 59-34. to10.gr called it probably one of the worst halves in the club's history (translated from Greek). Hard to argue. Montero, off the bench, was about the only red shirt who looked awake.

It got worse before it got better. Armoni Brooks opened the second half with a three for 62-34, a 28-point gap, according to SDNA. Then something flipped. Olympiacos answered with an 8-0 run, the defense finally started rotating, and Sasha Vezenkov and Evan Fournier began to chip away. Bartzokas' side won the third quarter 25-12 and cut it to 71-59 going into the fourth. Twelve points down with ten minutes left still feels like a lot. It did not feel like enough for Valencia.

There was drama on the bench too. Georgios Bartzokas picked up a technical foul in the first quarter, and about eight minutes from the end he was ejected with a second one after protesting a call, Gazzetta reported, with SDNA confirming the second technical. His assistant Christos Pappas took over and finished the game, per Sport24, with his team still chasing a double-digit deficit. I am not saying coaches should get thrown out more often. I am just saying the timing worked out.

The fourth quarter belonged to Fournier. The French veteran did not score at all in the first half, Sport24 noted, but he kept attacking, hit a corner three, and came up with a steal as the gap shrank. Montero added a three and an and-one, and a 7-0 run made it a one-point game. Nikola Milutinov then gave Olympiacos its first lead of the night, 84-83, with a basket inside around the 38th minute, per SDNA. Brooks answered with a three for Valencia, but Fournier and Mbaye Ndiaye hit straight back.

The ending of regulation had everything. Olympiacos led 90-88 after Montero made one of two free throws, but Shorts scored a difficult layup to tie it at 90-90 with 6.3 seconds left, according to both Sport24 and SDNA. Montero took the final shot against his old team, missed under pressure, and the game went to overtime. During the break, the EuroLeague's own account called it "one of the wildest comebacks ever." It still needed five more minutes to become one.

Overtime was tired, scrappy and tense. Kostas Papanikolaou opened it with an offensive rebound and a putback, Kameron Taylor answered with three free throws, and the lead swapped hands until Vezenkov scored for 96-95. Montero then hit a tough jumper from the corner for 98-95 with about a minute left, and Fournier made two free throws for 100-95, SDNA reported. Valencia got within three, but Fournier went back to the line and made two more for the final 102-97. Ice in the veins, as they say.

The numbers back up what everyone watching saw. Montero finished with 26 points on 8 of 12 shooting, 9 of 10 free throws and a 35 performance index rating in about 31 minutes, according to the BasketNews box score. Fournier added 23, every one of them after halftime, and went 7 of 7 from the line. Vezenkov had 14 points and seven rebounds, Ndiaye scored 11, and Papanikolaou chipped in nine points and seven boards. Olympiacos made 27 of 29 free throws and won the rebounding battle 47-32.

Montero's night had an extra layer. He played for Valencia until last season, and the Roig Arena crowd gave him a standing ovation on his first visit back as an opponent, Sport24 reported. He thanked them by leading the comeback that ended their perfect start. For Valencia, Mirotic led the way with 19 points, Shorts added 16 with five assists, Taylor had 15 and Brooks 14, per BasketNews. Coach Xavi Albert's team deserved better than that second half.

My take: a 28-point comeback on the road against an unbeaten team is the kind of result people remember in May. But I would not pretend the first 20 minutes did not happen. Olympiacos gave up 59 points in a half, turned the ball over too much early and looked a step slow everywhere. The champions showed their spine after the break, and that matters. Doing it for 40 minutes instead of 25 would make the next trip a lot less stressful.

Next up, Olympiacos visit Barcelona at the Palau Blaugrana on Friday, October 16, at 21:30 Greek time, while Valencia host Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday, per Sport24's round schedule. Panathinaikos, still perfect at 5-0 after their win in Belgrade, sit just ahead. If you are following from abroad, our guide on how to watch Greek TV online can help, and for more stories like this, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Down 28, up five. That is champion behavior.

Sources: Gazzetta, Sport24, SDNA, to10.gr, BasketNews.

Image: Olympiacos BC roster, November 2023, by Zafer, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).