He fought, but Mars “bent” in Ankara

Even if he stayed in the match for 35′, Aris, without four players, lost in Ankara 77-87 to Turk Telecom for the 11th matchday of the second group of the EuroCup and made it difficult for the case of qualification, even through the play-ins, staying at 2-9 and in the penultimate position, while the Turks went to 6-5 and are in the privileged six.

The match was a derby for most of the contest, with Aris leading 70-72 in the fourth quarter but then succumbing to a 17-5 scoring spree and several turnovers in the final minutes.

For the winners, the protagonists were Akpinar with 19, Brown with 18 and Hanlan with 16 points. For the “yellows”, Cooper stood out with 20, Willis with 15 and Hodge with 11 points.

The match

Aris had offensive versatility and went 5-0 and 7-2 in Ankara, receiving some easy baskets on his racket during this time. Willis brought 4-10 for the players of Giannis Kastritis and Hodge’s consecutive three-pointers +7. The American guard himself and his compatriots brought the double score twice, but Makudo’s three-pointer reduced the score to 14-22 at the end of the first period.

Willis made it 17-24 at the start of the second period, but Turk Telecom’s 5-0 run cut it to -2 for the Turks. Cooper led a 7-0 run for Aris for +9 of the “yellows”. There, however, Alexander and Brown helped fuel a 12-0 run by the Turks for a +3 lead for the hosts, who began to collect a lot of rebounds. The consecutive three-pointers on both sides brought the tie and Aris with a total streak of 7-0 reached +4. There, Hanlan spoke, who with two consecutive three-pointers brought +2 for the Turks and finally the half ended 45-43.

Turk had 6/9 2-pointers, 8/17 3-pointers, 9/9 shots and 16 rebounds. Aris had 10/16 two-pointers, 6/13 three-pointers, 5/6 shots and 18 rebounds.

Agva broke +2 with +3 for Turkey at the start of the third period. With a 4-0 run, Aris took a +1 lead and the lead began to alternate thereafter with the right choices back and forth on the opposing rackets. Cooper’s three-pointer brought the tie, Alexander’s +3 and Akpinar’s +4 for the Turks, with Noley finishing at 63-60 in the quarter.

Cooper starred in an 8-0 run by Aris at the start of the fourth period and brought the +3 for the players of Giannis Kastritis. Turk responded with a 5-0 run to equalize and Agva brought +1 for the hosts. Lazewski’s three-pointer made it 70-72, but Akpinar with a personal 4-0 run made it 74-72. Hanlan found his hand again and made it 77-72, before Noley cut it to 77-74 at 2’21”.

Hanlan made it 79-74 and on the opposite racket the two blocks received by the “yellows” made it 81-74 at 1’33”. Noley missed three consecutive attacks for the Thessalonians and Akpinar’s shots essentially “cleaned up” the match with 83-74 at 46”. Lazewski cut it to 83-76 and the match ended at 87-77.

The quarters: 14-22, 45-43, 63-60, 87-77

The statistics