The third quarter started once again with Cibona catching their opposition by surprise and proceeding to score basket after basket to get a 6 point lead, 50-44 a few minutes into the second half. Popovic was still unstoppable by both Jackson and Ruf, and went on to relentlessly score on them. The Greeks’ comeback did not take long, however, despite both Mafia and pHLo were on the bench due to 3 fouls committed. Pedrajas was the go-to guy on offense while Hassakis, Haas and Watson were doing an admirable job defending the paint. The Croats kept a 2-5 point lead throughout the quarter, until the final second, when an unbelievable basket-to-basket heave by Popovic (who else?) went in and made it 67-59 to end the period.

Jugs and the rest of the bench players carried Olympiakos and kept their team close when the starters where either failing miserably or benched…
The fourth and final period started with Olympiakos being the one who made the better start this time. With excellent ball movement and unexpected offensive help by Patrick Kaas and Jing Xu, The Reds cut the deficit to 2 and actually managed to regain the lead some time around mid-quarter, courtesy of The X’s offensive awakening and rebounding prowess. Robert Pedrajas was still sinking his open shots and Florian Ruf was his usual pass first pass second self, having racked up 5 assists. In the final stretches of the game, Andrew Watson scored 8 of his 12 total points and single handedly gave Olympiakos their third straight road victory, 84 – 89 against Cibona Zagreb.

Patrick ‘YoG’ Kaas did an excellent job replacing below par team captain Dweaver, and along with the surprise play of recent addidion Jxuusa were vital cogs for Olympiakos’ third consecutive victory…
POG: ANDREW ‘THE X’ WATSON 12pts – 15rebs
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