Aris had the highest scoring game of the season against Ilisiakos and won by 97-83 (half-time 52-44) at Alexandrio Melathro, for Match Day 17 of the Hellenic Championships 2009-2010. David Blatt’s team faced some difficulties until minute 18, but then got away in the score and reached easily to their goal, doing so in a quite spectacular way. Jeremy Richardson (30 points) was Aris’s top scorer, followed by Michalis Kakiouzis (16 points).
The “yellows” made an idle start and the visitors were up in the score (2-8 at 2’ and 4-10 at 4’). However, thanks to 11 points within just a minute and a half, Aris took the lead for the first time 3:13 before the end of the first period (15-13), having a huge advantage in the rebounds (15 to 5). Despite that, Ilisiakos reacted well and manage to make it even (23-23) in the last gasp.
Things didn’t change much in the second quarter, as the local side was still having problems in defence. The Athens team ran a 0-7 and took the lead once again (33-36, 4:40 before half-time), but David Blatt’s players responded with a similar run in the last couple of minutes and finished the first half at “+8” (52-44). Kakiouzis, who had already scored 14 with remarkable stats (4/5 two-pointers, 3/4 three-pointers) led his team to this.
Aris improved a lot in defence in the beginning of the second part, ran a lot more and their lead didn’t get less than 8 points. In fact, it reached as high as 18 (75-57) just in the end of third quarter, thanks to two consecutive three-point shots by Jeremy Richardson. The American forward was wonderful in the third period, scoring 19 out of the 23 points of his team, with 2/2 free throws, 4/4 two-pointers and 3/4 three-pointers.
The undisputed winner was to be Aris, so the last quarter was interesting only as far as the team’s effort to make it to 100 points for the first time this season. Between minute 31 and 35, though, the “yellows” scored just 5 points and Ilisiakos trimmed the difference down to 11. Despite all that, David Blatt’s players finished the game in a good way and set a new scoring record for this season.
Referees: SpyrosGontas (Athens), Vasilis Afentoulidis (Athens), Stefanos Maglogiannis (Athens).
Periods: 23-23, 52-44 (half-time), 75-57, 97-83.
ARIS (David Blatt): Clark 12 (2), Argyropoulos, Miles, Betts, Chrysikopoulos 2, Richardson 30 (4), Chatzivrettas 13 (1), Dikoudis 13, Skordilis, Paunic 3 (1), Kakiouzis 16 (2), Barlos 8.
ILISIAKOS (Stergios Koufos): Carter 23, Karydas 12 (1),Cummings 6 (2), Papanikolaou 13 (2), Papadakis 2, Chatzis 10 (2), Athanasoulas, Sioutis, Ikonomou, Benton 2, Ioannou 11 (1), Kaselakis 4.
