The match
Fotis Takianos started the quarter-final with Fredrickson, Towns, McNish, Williams and Alston, choosing to leave Gilmore out of the starting lineup, while Yannis Kastritis chose Toliopoulos, Bohorides, Bloombergs, Harrell and Bankston for his starting five, not having available of Gallinat and Fillio.
The match started with PAOK coming in stronger, offering a spectacle from the very first phase, when Fridriksson passed behind his back and McNeish nailed it emphatically in front of Bankston! Alston and Williams put “Two-Headed” ahead 7-0, while Aris scored for the first time after 3.5 minutes, with a three-pointer by Toliopoulos. The defenses of both teams were very strong in the first period, with PAOK taking advantage of the weaknesses of the predictable Aris and hitting him inside the racket, escaping for the first time with a double-digit difference (19-9 and 21-11) thanks to three points and five consecutive points by Michalak. Tsairelis added four straight points for PAOK, making it 25-11 in the first period.
Katsivelis and Sanogo reduced the score to 27-17 in favor of Ari at the start of the second quarter, but two consecutive three-pointers by Margaritis and Michalak put PAOK at +16 for the first time (33-17)! Bankston, out of rhythm, reduced it to 33-19 with two shots, while in the very next phase the Takianos players circulated the ball beautifully, with McNeese finishing the phase perfectly, with an emphatic nail for 35-19! With a short 6-0 run, Aris cut to 35-23, but PAOK had 10 more rebounds and Alston reached 8 personal points, making it 41-27 with a hook, before Schizas nailed impressively for 43-29 in the first half time!
As the teams returned from the locker room, PAOK made four consecutive mistakes in a few seconds, allowing Aris to build a 7-0 run by scoring with easy surprises by Harel, Sanogo and reducing after a long time to 43-37. Michalak scored PAOK’s first basket after almost 3 minutes for 45-37, before a 3-pointer by Harel came for 45-40! At that point the tempo dropped again, with back-to-back fouls and Fredrickson, Towns hitting shots to make it 49-42. With the tempo down and strong defenses coming back to the fore, PAOK was cooler than Aris in the shooting game and continued to dominate the rebounds (30-11), maintaining a double-digit lead in their favor (57-46 ) until the end of the third period.
The image of the match did not change even in the fourth period, with the defenses being the protagonists. Tsairelis became the second double-figure scorer after Michalak for PAOK, making it 62-48
More in a while…
The quarters: 25-11, 43-29, 57-46, 74-76
Source: Sport Fm
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