06.10.2010

Aris Survives Scare To See Off Lukoil

Aris survived a major scare but held on by just three points on aggregate to advance to the EuroCup regular season after Lukoil Academic claimed an impressive although ultimately fruitless 93-92 win on the night in Greece.

With four player claiming double-doubles in the game and a thrilling finale, it was certainly an exciting night for the 4,000 home fans in Thessaloniki - even if they did have to suffer their team making them sweat it out.

There was nothing between the teams in the opening exchanges until a burst of three-pointers from Travis Peterson and Brandon Bowman saw Lukoil stun the locals by taking a seven point lead on the evening and three point aggregate lead.

Chatzivrettas then led the Aris come-back and the quarter closed with the hosts only two points behind at 22-24.

Aris went on a run of eight unanswered points to take the lead at 35-33, half-way through the second quarter. Only to then see Brandon Heath and Stoykov share three consecutive shots from downtown to get their team back in front at 48-44.

However, the visitors allowed Aris to come out with a 6-0 start of the second half and when a Kaspars Kambala jump-shot went in, it gave Lukoil the impetus to do more chasing again.

It was Kambala who kept Lukoil in the game during the first five minutes of the third quarter and just when Aris looked to be edging away, Heath sunk a last second three pointer to close the third quarter at 72-72.

Still tied up at 83-83, Lukoil stepped up and the first points of the evening for Veselinov brought the scores to 89-84 in favour of Lukoil with two minutes to go.

With the tie hanging in the balance, Nikos Chatzivrettas then showed his nerve by calmly slotting 2 of 2 from the line for Aris to leave Lukoil needing three points from the last possession to level the tie.

Lukoil worked the ball to Heath, whose three-pointer did not go in and Aris were able to start celebrating.

Christos Tapoutos and Anthony Tucker registered double-double for Aris while Kambala and Heath repeated the feat for the visitors.

However perhaps it was the ice cool work of Chatzivrettas on the line during crunch time that was the most important aspect in the game.

 

06.10.2010

Quotes Aris vs. Lukoil Academic

Aris coach Sharon Drucker:
"This game was completely different than the previous one in Sofia. Today Kampala and Heath played very well and were two players that didn't play a lot in Sofia and for that we had to find solutions during the game. We are very happy to qualify to the Eurocup regular season. Lucoil Academic is a very good team. I told you before today's game that we should not think about the advantage of four points [we had from the first game], and that this game was only the second half."

Aris player Christos Tapoutos:
"We wanted very much to qualify to the groups of Eurocup and we achieved our first goal. The team was tired from all the previous games. Lucoil Academic used two players who scored more than fourty points. We are going on and for that we are happy."

Lukoil Academic coach Jovica Arcic:
"Congratulations to Aris. They deserve to play in Eurocup first of all becuase of the fans that support the team. We made some crucial mistakes in the last minutes and that were enough to stop us from playing in Eurocup. Our team is not ready because we have a lot of new players and they need time to get to know each other."