“He committed suicide” and Ares gets into trouble

In a match that led for three of four quarters, Aris eventually lost 75-82 to Tsedevita-Olibia in Alexandrio for the fifth game of the second group of the EuroCup and went to a 1-4 record, remaining out of the privileged positions and leaving the Slovenians in the trio with 4-1.

Giannis Kastritis’ men got up to +10 late in the half and into the fourth quarter, but then suffered a 0-15 run from the Slovenians who got up to +8 and held on after that.

Leading the winners were Blazic with 19, Robinson with 18 and Stewart with 15 points. For the “yellows”, Toliopoulos stood out with 17, Noley with 15 and Hodge with 12 points.

The match

Aris led 5-0 at the start of the match against the bad defense of Tsedevita, but the Slovenians found many solutions and tied at 5-5. The two teams found the right options inside the opponent’s basket and kept pace with the score at that time. There, an 8-0 run by the Slovenians, led by Blazic, brought +6 for the guests. Toliopoulos’ two consecutive 3-pointers tied the game. Tsedevita managed to take the lead with +2 and, after many changes in the score, Hatzidakis made it 24-23 at the end of the first quarter.

After the changes in the lead at the beginning of the second period, De Julius with a personal run of 5-0 brought +4 for the “yellows” from racket and perimeter. Noley took the situation into his own hands aggressively and kept +2 to +4 for the team of Yannis Kastritis. Amazing defense, a lot of defensive rebounds and fast attacks initially brought a 7-0 run for 38-29 and Toliopoulos’ 3-pointer brought +10, with the Thessalonians maintaining +8 to +10 with the right picks inside on the opposing racket and with Hodge’s three-pointer making it 48-37 at the end of the half.

Aris had 10/20 two-pointers, 7/14 three-pointers, 7/9 shots and 14 rebounds and Tsedevita-Olibia had 12/18 two-pointers, 3/7 shots and 17 rebounds.

Woodbury’s three-pointer brought +12 to the start of the third period for Aris and, with the right choices in the Slovenian racket, the “yellows” kept +10 to +12 in the pressing defense of Cedevita-Olibia. However, there the defense of Aris seemed to relax and with many offensive options Tsedevita-Olibia with a 9-0 run reduced the score to 55-52. Hodge’s 3-pointer made it +5 and DeJulius made it 61-54 at the quarter.

Hodge made it 64-54 at the start of the fourth quarter and Kastritis’ players maintained +6 to +7 thereafter. At 66-57, the frivolity and the many offensive mistakes began and Tsedevita-Olibia went on a 9-0 run and equalized 66-66 with Blazic and Robinson as the protagonists. The miscue, missed offensive rebounds and slow comebacks to surprise Slovenians made it 68-72 for the visitors, who went on a 6-0 run in that period.

Noley’s shots reduced to 70-72 and those of Nikolic made it 70-74 at 2’56” before the end and with a new 4-0 run, Cedevita-Olibia reached 70-78 at 2’05”. Aris responded with a 5-0 run for 75-78 at 1’05” with his regionals. Robinson’s shots made it 75-80 at 46”, DeJulius missed a two-pointer and Robinson made the final 75-82 which makes life difficult for the “yellows”.

The quarters: 24-23, 48-37, 61-54, 75-82

The statistics