Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Olympiacos 89-72 as Nikola Milutinov did as he pleased throughout the 40 minutes to help the Piraeus based squad to the victory. The fans at the Peace and Friendship Arena were all behind the hosts as they pushed their heroes out in front early as Milutinov, Alec Peters and Isaiah Canaan spurred the hosts onto the double digit win.

With the loss, the yellow-and-blue’s record dropped to 12-10 as they now return back to Israel for a pair of domestic league games at Hapoel Tel Aviv on Saturday night and at home against Kiryat Ata before heading out to Belgrade where they will face Panathinaikos in their next Euroleague affair.

Wade Baldwin paced Maccabi with 18 points while Tamir Blatt and Bonzie Colson each had 10 points in the defeat. Milutinov recorded a 20 point and 20 rebound double-double, Isaiah Canaan scored 20 points and Alec Peters chipped in with 17 points in the win.

“There are some things that we can’t control,” Maccabi coach Oded Katash said. “We missed some good shots against a team like Olympiacos especially here you have to do things right. We turned the ball over in the first half too many times. The second half we got some good looks but missed shots and they made some good shots, did things right and played better than us and they deserved to win.”

Roman Sorkin reflected on the loss while looking ahead, “Of course we are disappointed. We couldn’t what we wanted to in this game and let Olympiakos take over, but we have to look forward. There’s not much time to rest and on Saturday night there is a Derby, that’s the most important thing right now and that’s what we’ll focus on from here on in.”

Alec Peters, Isaiah Canaan with a pair of triples and Milutinov got to work early and often to open up a lead in the first quarter for Olympiacos but John Dibartolomeo and Tamir Blatt off the bench each drained a pair from deep for while Jasiel Rivero scored a bucket to end the period with Maccabi Tel Aviv down 26-18 after ten minutes of play.

Rivero continued his fine play into the second quarter and Wade Baldwin with a 3-pointer drew the yellow-and-blue even at 28-28 but a Milutinov dunk and a Nigel Williams-Goss triple countered points from Bonzie Colson to keep the Georgios Bartzokas’s squad in front 42-36 at halftime.

Roman Sorkin opened the third quarter with a deuce but Olympiacos went on a quick 12-0 run as Thomas Walkup drained a pair of 3-pointers while Peters scored in bunches as Colson and Blatt along with a period ending triple by James Webb tried to keep Oded Katash’s team close but down 69-57 after thirty minutes of action.

Canaan led off the final frame with points to send the hosts on a 9-0 run to widen the gap even further, Baldwin tried to get the yellow-and-blue back in the game but couldn’t as Milutinov closed the story and sealed the deal for Olympiacos back home to take the win following a double week in which they lost both games on the road in Spain.