The 2009-2010 season ended prematurely and in a bitter way for Aris, which lost to Olympiacos 75-85 (halftime score 43-36) at Alexandrio Melathro for Game 2 of the Hellenic Championships quarterfinal playoffs and was eliminated from the semifinals. The “yellows” ended up in the 7th position of the finals standings, while their rivals proceeded to the next round with a 2-0 wins total in this “best of three” series.

Aris started great, once more, and took the lead since the very beginning, extending it up to 13 points (20-7) 3:29 before the end of the 1st quarter, thanks to a three-pointer by Walsh. This lead got even wider in the middle of the 2nd quarter: A three-point shot by Kakiouzis gave his team a “+14” advantage (39-25) 4:24 before halftime. Nevertheless, the Piraeus team managed to cut it down to 7(43-36)just before the break.

The second half began with a 5-0 partial score for Aris, which made it 48-36 overall, but then Olympiacos changed the whole game within a few minutes. Childress was unstoppable and scored 13 out his team’s 15 points in a row, which turned the score into 53-58, 1:55 before the end of the 3rd quarter. It was the first time the visitors were taking the lead, but they were about to keep it until the end.

The 4th period started with 5 points by Papaloukas (57-65) and then Olympiacos’s pressure led them to a double-digit advantage (59-69), with 7:37 to go. Aris came as close as 6 points (67-73at 35’), but the continuous errors in attack and the referees’ mistakes against David Blatt’s team gave the visitors the opportunity to maintain the lead with no further worries. Teodosic scored a three-pointer (69-78, 2:20 before the end), Kleiza dunked on the fast-break (69-80, with 1:31 to go) and it was all over.

Referees: Kostas Mouzakis (Athens), Tasos Piloidis (Athens), Christos Panagiotou (Patras).

Periods: 24-15, 43-36 (halftime), 57-60, 75-85.

ARIS (David Blatt):Clark3 (1), Miles 8 (1), Betts 10, Walsh 6 (2), Richardson 26 (3), Chatzivrettas, Skordilis 6, Kakiouzis 14 (2), Barlos 2.

OLYMPIACOS (Panagiotis Yannakis): Papaloukas 10 (1), Penn, Childress 22 (1), Vujcic 5, Vasilopoulos, Beverly 6, Kleiza 15 (1), Mavrokefalidis 9, Teodosic 12 (3), Glyniadakis, Schortsanitis 6.