PAOK paid for the bad third period and said goodbye to first place and direct qualification

Bend to Belgrade and the… cold “Hala Pionir” from Hapoel Jerusalem The PAOK and finally said goodbye to the first place in the group and direct qualification to the “16” of the Basketball Champions League.

The team of Fotis Takianos paid the disastrous third quarter and despite the effort at the end, could not reverse the situation and defend the +2 (79-77) of the first game, knowing the defeat with a score of 71-61.

With this victory, the Israelis also mathematically won the first place in the group, with the “double-header of the north” now looking at the 2nd and best place in the knockouts, hosting the Galatasaray in Pylaia on the last weekend.

The first scorer for the winners was Chris Johnson with 16 points and 7 rebounds, while for PAOK the standouts were Gilmore and Harrison who had 12 points each.

The match:

THE PAOK came into the game better and with Schiza and Harrison finding their way to the opposing basket, led 9-7 at 5′. The Greek team’s many missed defensive rebounds, however, allowed Hapoel Jerusalem to frequently renew attacks and find easy second-chance points for a 16-14 advantage. The first period ended with Tsairelis’ layup in the final for the 16-16 of the quarter.

Early in the second period, the Israelis went on a quick 6-0 run to make it 22-16. In fact, PAOK’s inability to clear the rebounds, combined with the many missed shots by Fotis Takianos’ players, allowed the typically home team to even go to the +10 (32-22) at 17′. Despite this bad period, the “two-headed of the north” then improved its defense, and with Beliauskas and Gilmore in a leading role, they gnawed away at the difference, going to the locker room at -3 for the 33-30 of the half.

In third period, the Thessalonians, not only could not continue their good image in the last three minutes of the first half, on the contrary, they suffered a big blackout as a result of which the difference escaped to high values. Everything went wrong for PAOK in the quarter, after hitting only three two-pointers (3/8d., 0/6tr.) and four shots, while also committing 5 errors. In fact, towards the end of the period, the visitors were held “off the ball” for 4.5 minutes, with Hapoel Jerusalem running a partial 14-0 run for +16 (54-38), before Vangelis Margaritis formed 54-40 of the period from the firing line.

Despite this big difference in a low-tempo game, PAOK made their effort in fourth and final period. With a continuous counterattack and big baskets by Harrison and Beliauskas, the Greek team managed to reduce up to 5 points (66-61), 1:16′ before the final. In the time remaining however, he was unable to defend the +2 of the first match, ultimately losing with score 71-61.

The quarters: 16-16, 33-30, 54-40, 71-61.

See here the statistics of the match.