Aris lost the match against Panellinios today at a final score of 68-63 for the final friendly match of the “Mavroskoufeia” tournament that was organized by the Thessaloniki Game Officials Association. Our team once again played without Keydren Clark.
Periods: 23-20, 10-16, 21-22, 9-10.
ARIS (Mazzon):Argyropoulos 2, Betts 14, Day 7, Chatzivrettas 10 , Dikoudis 10, Skordilis, Kakiouzis 10, Barlos, Mourtos, Belser 5, Chrisikopoulos.
Panellinios (Zouros):Xanthopoulos 2, Ostoic 3, Haralambidis 14, Kolokas 2, Johnson 7, Smith 12, Petroulas 2, Tsakaleris 2, Blakeney 13, Davis, Vougioukas 11.
Coach Andrea Mazzon said: “At some points, we played like a team that was familiar with each other. We have smart players and we showed some good elements. We did a good job in thirty minutes of our game”. Concerning how well we did in defense, the coach said: “We were not bad in our defense. We did a good job, but there were of course some mistakes”, while on the teams offense, he said: “we did not have a good percentage in our three pointers, and we had 63% in free throws. Towards the end, we did not make the decisions we were meant to make. When you win a game with much ease, it is difficult to determine your weaknesses. It is very important to be able to observe some of our problems” he said, and finished up by saying: “In the time we have left, we will try and improve, but of course it will not be easy”.
“I cannot say that we are ready. The friendly matches are mainly for us to improve. Of course we should win those games, but that is not our main goal” said Michalis Kakiouzis after the match tonight. He continued on by saying that: “We have weaknesses. I hope that we improve in the next few days that we have left up until the match against Maroussi. The only sure thing is that we will be ready”. He continued on saying that: “Some things will work automatically in time, like our offense and our defense. It is expected that we would have some fluctuations. First of all, because Clark is out of the game due to his injury, and also because we have a new player, Day, who is basically playing without any practice. All this of course is not an excuse for losing”, he said in conclusion.
“We are disappointed by the result of this game. We need to improve some things. I am sure that we will be completely ready for the match against Maroussi on Tuesday” said Andrew Betts. “We need to find the chemistry among us so that we can improve in many elements of our game. We are a team with new players and we need some more time”, said the English center.
