By Can Erozden
ANKARA (AA) - Barcelona topped the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with a narrow 79-78 overtime win Wednesday against Greek team Olympiacos at home.
Olympiacos were leading 67-65 in the final 33 seconds of the fourth quarter. But Barcelona tied the clash at the Palau Blaugrana arena after a foul and took it to overtime.
Hassan Martin fouled Barcelona's Kyle Kuric and the Slovakian forward scored two free throws to make it 67-67 in regular time.
After Kuric's perfect free throws, Olympiacos were given the ball to attack. But the visitors' Greek guard Kostas Sloukas missed a two pointer.
Immediately after, Nick Calathes grabbed a defensive rebound with 10 seconds to go and passed it to his teammate Cory Higgins.
Barcelona's Higgins also missed a two-point chance near the end of the clash, which meant the game went to overtime.
In the extra quarter, Barcelona scored 12 points to win the showdown. Meanwhile, Olympiacos racked up 11 points in the period.
There were breathtaking moments in overtime as well.
The Greek team were leading 78-77 in the last eight seconds of overtime.
But after a foul, Barcelona's Pierre Oriola scored two free throws to bring victory for the Spanish team.
Olympiacos hurried in a last dash.
Sloukas drove inside but missed a vital two pointer at the buzzer to make the result 79-78 for Barcelona.
Spanish forward Nikola Mirotic scored 22 points to lead Barcelona. He also took six rebounds.
One of the key players for Barcelona, Calathes, scored nine points. But also he had 13 rebounds and produced seven assists to make an impact. Calathes also made three steals.
Meanwhile, Sloukas tallied 14 points for Olympiacos.
Olympiacos duo Sasha Vezenkov and Tyler Dorsey scored 12 points each.
But they could not prevent the loss in Spain.
Barcelona have a 3-0 win/loss record in the regular season to top the EuroLeague table.
Fourth-place Olympiacos suffered their first loss of the season.
The Greek club previously won two games in the EuroLeague.
- Wednesday's results
Real Madrid - Monaco: 94-86
Barcelona - Olympiacos: 79-78
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade - Zalgiris Kaunas: 73-61