Aris deserved more in Piraeus, where they lost to Olympiakos 75-63 (halftime score 40-35) in the first game for the quarterfinals of the Hellenic Championships playoffs. David Blatt’s players, who weren’t treated well by the referees, were spectacular in the 1st half but this came to nothing. After this defeat, they will have to win the second game (Monday 03/05, 19:00), at Alexandrio Melathro, in order to take the series into a third game.
The “yellows” started great and scored 5 out 5 three-pointers, to make their lead higher and higher: 2-9 at 2’, 7-16 at 4’ and 9-21 with 4:30 remaining for the end of the 1st quarter. However, Olympiacos responded with an 11-2 run and cut down the score difference (20-23).
Things, though, kept on going wonderful for Aris in the 2nd period, as the built once more a double-digit lead (21-31 at 14’). Nevertheless, the local team ran a 10-0, made it 33-33 with 3:30 to go and Kleiza gave them the lead (40-35) for the first time since the initial 2-0. David Blatt’s team could only score 9 points in the 2nd quarter.
In the beginning of the 2nd half, aided by some more wrong decisions of the referees, Olympiacos found a good rhythm in attack and got away with 13 points (53-40 at 25’) and then 14 (56-42 at27’). Aris’s persistence helped them come as close as 8 points (57-49) justbefore the end of the 3rd period.
However, nothing really changed in the last quarter, which Olympiacos controlled and spread the difference up to 15 points (69-54 at 34’), getting the victory without any nervousness in the final minutes.Referees: Leonidas Spyridonos, Giorgos Tanatzis, Argyris Kaldiris.
Periods: 20-26, 40-35 (halftime), 59-49, 75-63.
OLYMPIACOS (Panagiotis Giannakis): Papaloukas 5, Penn, Childress 17 (1), Vujcic 2, Vasilopoulos, Bourousis 3, Papanikolaou, Kleiza 19 (2), Mavrokefalidis 6, Beverly 4, Teodosic 9 (1), Schortsanitis 10.
ARIS (David Blatt): Clark 14 (4), Miles (9 as.), Betts 8 (8 reb.), Walsh 10 (1), Richardson 9 (2), Chatzivrettas 8 (2), Dikoudis 2, Skordilis, Paunic 2, Kakiouzis 8, Barlos 2.
