Aris lost 79-73 to Kolossos in the isle of Rhodes (halftime 31-37) and saw their chances of finishing in the 5th or 6th place getting reduced. In their game for Match Day 22 of the Hellenic Championships, the “yellows” could have won in “Venetoklio”, but paid high price for their too many lost defensive rebounds and their bad offensive decisions in the last couple of minutes. Miles, Kakiouzis and Richardson were coming from injuries, Clark wasn’t on a good day in attack (1/7 2p., 0/3 3p.) and their team even lost the basket average advantage in case of a tie with Kolossos, since they had won by 4 (51-47) in the first round.
The game was tight in the 1st quarter, but then David Blatt’s players managed to take the lead, aided by their effective defense and by their high percentage in three-point shots (7/15 in the first half). Just before halftime, the visitors built a 6-point lead (31-37).
In the beginning of the second half, they went to “+8” (31-39), however things changed dramatically from that point. Kolossos controlled the rebounds, stopped Aris’s consecutive three-pointers and was able to run on the fast-break in every chance possible. This way, the score was level once again in the end of the 3rd quarter and by the start of the 4th the local team had gained a lead of some 4-5 points.
In the last 3 minutes, Aris was trying to get closer, but the nervousness led the players to bad decisions in attack. Pappas’s three-pointer, which made it 74-67 for Kolossos with 1:36 to go, proved to be crucial. Aris couldn’t return to the game, as Walsh scored a two-point shot (74-69) but missed a free throw and also missed the next shot, 52’’ before the end. The team from Rhodes couldn’t score either, stole the ball just after that and it was all over.
Referees: Spyros Gontas, Tasos Piloidis, Kostas Poursanidis.
Periods: 18-18, 31-37 (halftime), 53-53, 79-73.
KOLOSSOS RODOU (Giannis Sferopoulos): Harris 15, Panteliadis, Vasiljevic 16 (2), Zaras, Manolopoulos 2, Asimakopoulos 2, Dozier 14 (2), Harisis 6, Tsamis 11 (1), Pappas 9 (1), Monds 4.
ARIS (David Blatt): Clark 2, Miles 11, Betts 5, Walsh 18 (2), Richardson 13 (3), Chatzivrettas 3 (1), Dikoudis 11 (1), Paunic 3 (1), Kakiouzis 2, Barlos 5 (1).
