He celebrated the first victory in this year’s championship by landing him Prometheus Ares!
After their two losses to AEK Betsson and Olympiakos in the first two matches of the Stoiximan GBL, as well as their midweek home defeat to Hapoel Jerusalem for the EuroCup, the Thessalonians showed improvement and prevailed 86-75 of Patrina in Alexandria!
Having for their top Noley (21pts, 7 rebounds, 7 assists), De Julius (15pts, 6 assists), Toliopoulos (13 points, 3 assists), Aris went up to 1-2 and got psyched up ahead of his difficult European encounter with Chedevita (23/10, 20:00), while for the next matchday he will travel to Rhodes to face Kolossos.
On the other hand, Luntzis (16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), Walker (13p) and Varnado (13pts, 6 rebs) stood out for Prometheus, who traveled to Thessaloniki in high spirits and coming from three consecutive victories, were defeated for the first time in this year’s championship (2-1) and now turn their attention to the difficult home test against at Galatasarai (23/10, 19:00), for the BCL.
The match:
De Julius and Banks teamed up for an impressive alley-oop nailing of the second, in the first phase of the match, while Aris came in very strongly and led 8-0, forcing Papatheodorou to take his first timeout very early, while after an emphatic Banks block on Ivudu and a tough layup by DeJulius made it 11-0.
With the home team playing excellent defense and Prometheus having a lot of problems in their attacks, the first period ended with Aris at +12 (23-11), with the leading scorer being Noley, who was missing shots (0/4 ), but scored all the rest (9p 2/2 two-pointers, 1/1 three-pointer).
The home team continued to have a lot of energy on both ends of the floor and maintained their double-digit lead, but midway through the second period Prometheus responded, starting to hit long shots, closing within a point (32-31) on back-to-back 3-pointers by Walker and Hernandez layup. Toliopoulos and Noley gave Aris a “safety” lead again (39-31), while Lountzis with two consecutive baskets reduced it to 43-37 at halftime.
Aris went without a point for 3 minutes at the beginning of the third period, allowing Prometheus to get closer to 46-42 with Varnado and Williams, but Giuzelis and Hatzidakis gave Kastritis’ team offensive solutions, for 53-46. Somewhere there, Toliopoulos entered the offensive equation of Aris, who kept the difference in his favor at… the edges of 10 points (62-53).
The picture of the game did not change even in the fourth quarter, with Aris having the answer to every attempt of the guests to come back with claims to claim victory. De Julius was a reliable offensive solution for the home team all afternoon and made it 70-56 with a three-pointer, Toliopoulos with five consecutive points made it 77-63, and Aris finally celebrated the victory comfortably, with 86-75.
The quarters: 23-11, 43-37, 62-53,
The match statistics
Source: Sport Fm
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