AEK: McLemore flirted with Hadzi’s historic three-point record!

ESAKE’s analysis of AEK-Apollon Patras:

Six days in the SEF, he didn’t hit anything, finishing the match with Olympiakos having 0/5 three-pointers and a total of 0/9 shots inside the field. Yesterday (10/21), Ben McLemore didn’t miss a beat from the perimeter, coming very close to AEK Betsson’s all-time Basket League record after going 5/5 against Apollon Carna.

The American needed one more three-pointer, in one attempt, to make it 6/6 which was achieved only once in the history of the “Union” in the years of the professional Championship (from 1992-93). It was February 1, 2004 when Nikos Hatzis “wrote” 6/6 three-pointers in AEK Betsson’s 80-78 away win over Heraklion.

Closer to McLemore’s performance yesterday, in the last decade, from the 2014-15 season when AEK Betsson returned to the Basket League, was Dusan Sakota. It was in the 2nd quarterfinal of the 2019 playoffs when he hit 4/4 3-pointers against Holargos.

Of course, the American guard also set a new season record, since the previous one was the one set by Linos Chrysikopoulos in the 2nd game with 3/3 in Prometheus’ match with Karditsa Japoniki, while he became the 6th with a performance of 5+ accurate shots from the perimeter.

Ben McLemore is the only player to reach 20+ points with perfect 3-point accuracy, as he went 5/5. This was also the record of last year’s Basket League after Kostas Sloukas had 23 points with 5/5 in Olympiakos’ home match against Peristeri bwin, while Sylvain Francisco had 24 points and 5/5 three-pointers in the 4th semi-final of the “blue and red” against Panathinaikos. Last season, Elaiza Mitrou-Long also had 5/5 three-pointers in Aris Midea’s away match against Apollon Carna.

McLemore became the fourth AEK player in the first three games to reach a performance of 20+ points. In the first two, Justin Tillman, Jordan McRae in the first game and Mindaugas Kuzminskas in the 2nd game did it once.

With his 26 points, AEK Betsson’s American equaled the highest scoring performance of the season, among players who remained flawless. The same combination (26 points / 0 errors) was had by Luka Brajkovic in the game of Colossus H Hotels with Lavrio Megabolt.

Hall 7th foreign passer in the Basket League

His presence on the floor was limited to 6:45 minutes, but that was enough for Langston Hall to find the one assist he needed, in order to “climb” a place on the list of leading foreign passers in the history of the professional Championship. The American had one assist yesterday and reached 428 passing the late Alphonso Ford to become the 7th foreign passer in the Basket League.

Even on an individual level…

*Dimitris Flionis had four assists with which he reached and exceeded 300, in a total of 174 games in the Basket League.

*Homeros Netzipoglou reached three-digit number of accurate two-pointers through his 58th appearance in the division. He had 4/5 yesterday and now counts 101/190 (53.15%).

At the same time, the international guard set a career record with the two interceptions he made. He even became the first to reach such a performance in the season, without being a racket player.

*Yiannis Kouseloglou added his name to the list of players who reached 100+ rebounds with AEK Betsson in the Basket League. With the eight he had yesterday, he became 81st on this list.

*Jordan McRae tied the season-high in defensive rebounds. He had eight more than Shakur Juston in Game 1 and Chris Coffey in Game 2.

*Chason Randle had five assists and no fouls. He thus became the third so far in the season, who had 5+ assists and remained unblemished, after Alec Peters who had the same performance in the Olympiakos premiere match with Aris Midea, while the record is held by London Perantes from the Colossus H match Hotels in Lavrio (12 assists / 0 mistakes).

The American guard scored the 7th 7+ performance in “economy”. He had 5 assists, 2 steals, no blocks and no errors.

*In the first two games there were four performances +20 in “+/-” and yesterday AEK had three which are also the best of the season. Dimitris Flionis “wrote” +29, Ben McLemore +26 and Chaison Randle +25.

“100” after 2.5 years

AEK Betsson was extremely productive scoring the first 40-minute ‘100’ of the season and the second after Kolossos H Hotels in the 50-minute match against Peristeri bwin in the premiere. “Union” scored 100 points, the most they had in the Championship in the last 2.5 years.

The previous one was the one he scored on June 4, 2021 against Prometheus for the 2nd minor final of the playoffs when he prevailed 113-101. A few weeks earlier he had also scored 100+ points in the first quarterfinal of the playoffs with PAOK mateco (102-89) while to find AEK Betsson’s previous “100 points” for the regular season, we will stay with the 2020-21 season, since had scored 100 in the home victory over Herakles (100-97) which had been achieved, however, in overtime.

So, to find AEK Betsson’s previous “100 points” with yesterday’s data, in a game of 40 minutes of the regular season, we have to go back to December 28, 2019. At that time, they won at home against Ionikos with 103-70.

Even at team level for AEK Betsson…

*Juan Plata’s team was extremely productive both near and far from the basket. With her 28 well-placed two-pointers, she set a new season record after 24 a week earlier by PAOK mateco in Maroussi. With the 52 points he had through the racket, he set a new season record after Peristeri bwin had 48 in the premiere.

*The dominance of the “Union” in rebounds was total. “Wrote” a new defensive season record with 33, a new defensive rebound differential record with 16 more (33-17), the second best total rebound performance (45) behind the one that Prometheus had in the 2nd game (49) and a new record difference in total rebounds with +20 (45-25).

*He also had a record for the first matches of the Championship in assists. He equaled the biggest performance of 23 that Kolossos H Hotels had in the premiere, while he set a new record in the difference after he had 10 more than Apollon Carna (23-13), surpassing the +8 that Karditsa Japan made against him in the premiere ( 13-21).

*A double record, based on the data of the first matches, was also achieved for AEK Betsson in points from surprises. They had the most of any other team so far (31) and the biggest margin of victory over their opponent (+21). The previous best performances were those of Panathinaikos’ 24 points against Marousi and the +13 scored by Kolossos H Hotels against Lavrio Megabolt (4-17). “Union” even equaled the record of last year’s Championship which was the 31 points scored by Peristeri bwin from surprises in the home match against Ionikos.

*The home team put the water in the groove from the opening minutes thanks to a 13-0 run that turned 0-2 into 13-2. That’s the most they’ve done in three games and tied for the second most of the season. The record was kept from the 2nd matchday by Lavrio Megabolt who made a 14-0 win over Kolossos H Hotels.

*Juan Plata’s team dominated the second half when they scored two big performances. She tied for the second-highest scoring performance in a half with 52, two shy of what she also had in the second half of her matchup with the Lavrio Megabolt. At the same time, he set a new record for the difference in points in a half with +23 in the second half (52-29), since the previous one was the +22 that Prometheus made in its home game against Karditsa Japan (48-26 in the 1st half).

*The difference of 30 points is not only the biggest final, but also the biggest that any team got even in the progress of the matches so far, since the previous biggest was the +28 that Panathinaikos got during its match against Marousi (63-35 at 25:42).

*Based on the ranking, AEK Betsson’s performance yesterday was the best of any other this season. It had 130 in the evaluation system surpassing the 122 of Kolossos H Hotels in the premiere with Peristeri bwin. But apart from them, the “Union” made, based on the ranking, its best appearance in the last four years. To find a performance greater than 130 we have to go back to the 2019-20 season when he had 133 in the home match against Ionikos.

The +69 that AEK Betsson had against Apollon Carna in the ranking (130-61) is more than double the previous record of the season, the +31 that Prometheus made in the premiere against PAOK mateco (84-115).

The 200-year-old Filippakos is on the verge of a career record

In 19:32 minutes of his presence on the floor, Panos Filippakos scored 16 points against his former team and was one away from his career record. The 29-year-old forward had 17 points in the match of the 14th game of last year’s Championship, against Apollon Carna in Karditsa.

With these 16 points he scored in the Ano Liosion game, Filippakos reached and exceeded 200 career points in his 80th appearance in the Basket League.

Even for the Patras team…

*TJ Starks finished the game with 22 points and is the only player to reach 20+ points in each of his first three games of the season. It is something that no one else can achieve in the remaining games, since Elvar Fridriksson of PAOK mateco had two more, but he did not manage to do it yesterday either.

The American guard equaled the top performances of the season in field goals (8) and in percentage from the foul line (8/8). He shares the first with three others and the second with Handel Hale who also had 8/8 at the premiere.

*Chad Brown debuted with Apollon Carna which became his third team in the Greek Championship, after Messolonghi and Peristeri bwin. He was one of three players to score in double figures on 2/7 shooting. He thus confirmed his weakness at the foul line since he now counts 48/112 (42.85%) in 35 games.

Brown had all of Apollo Carna’s missed shots after his teammates tallied 9/9. He became the third player in this year’s Championship with 5+ missed shots in a match. His teammate Vassilis Mouratos also had five in the premiere against Karditsa Japoniki (3/8), while the negative record has been held by Jamani McNeese of PAOK mateco since the 2nd matchday with six (2/8).

At the same time, the American center set a new negative season record with -32 recorded during his presence on the floor in the “+/-” coefficient. At -29 yesterday was Christos Saloustros and thus both surpassed the -26 that Vangelis Margaritis had in the premiere.

*Christos Saloustros went scoreless in 22:49 of action, the third-longest stretch combined with a zero-scoring performance behind Skyler Flaten (26:32) and Nemanja Dagubic (25:34) in the opener .

*Apollon Carna coach Nikos Vetoulas remained without an away win against AEK Betsson, since this was his 7th defeat in as many matches in Athens.

*Apollon Carna “wrote” a new negative season record in the ranking by finishing the game with 61 and while he had 64 in the two previous matches. In between his performances yesterday came Peristeri bwin with 63 in Pylaia.