After a bad performance and a very tough game, ARIS overcame the obstacle of AEL 1964 and beat them 72-70. ARIS' MVP was once again Jeremiah Massey with 30 points, but the total appearence of the team left Gordon Herbert with a bitter taste, especially the 19 additional rebounds of the guests...

@ Report

ARIS began the game, being absolutely perfect in the field goal percentage, but its defence lacked coherence and efficiency and, thus, the score was 12-9 in the 5th minute. ARIS couldn't threat from outside and was trying to penetrate inside. AEL controlled the rebound battle and the final 17-14 of the quarter was leaving the two teams with open accounts. In the second period, the scoring drought of the first 7 minutes, where only 9 total points were marked, left the 2.000 ARIS fans with a bad taste, as their team didn't perform at the high standards of the previous Euroleague game against Efes Pilsen. However, at that point, and mostly thanks to the reliable Lazaros Agadakos, ARIS made a quick 8-0 run and increased the lead to 30-21. The final buzzer of the half found ARIS leading by 6 (32-26), after a late downtown bomb by Papanikolopoulos.

In the second half, the insistence of Herbert on Mottola and Serapinas, who both underperformed, and the offensive awakening of AEL's Keys led to a 19-5 run in favor of the guests, which helped them close the quarter ahed 46-50. In the final and critical period, ARIS players tried to feed Jeremiah Massey inside the paint, in order to take advantage of his skillful movements. Massey and Iliadis initiated a 9-2 run, which put ARIS ahead again (55-52). A dowtown 3-pointer by Papanikolopoulos and a flagrant foul against Massey (which upset the crowd) put AEL once again ahead 57-58, with less than 5' to go. However, Massey seemed unstoppable, as he managed to give the lead back to ARIS, 62-58. Despite the fact that AEL reacted immediately and tied the score, ARIS had found the players to rely on: Massey with 2 free throw and Bracey Wright with a crucial 3-pointer gave ARIS a 5-point lead (67-62), which substantially offered ARIS the victory. Serapinas with a free throw formed the 68-62, but AEL came back and closed the gap to -3 (70-67). With 19" left, Castle lost both free throws and Papachristos made 2/2 from the charity line to reduce the gap to -1. Wright was cold-blooded and made 2/2 free throws and Teague lost 1, to form the final 72-70.

@ Quarters

17-14, 32-26, 46-50, 72-70

@ Statistics

ARIS : Castle 6, Serapinas 1, Tsaldaris 2, Wright 17 (2), Massey 30 (2), Kalaitzis, Iliadis 9, Mottola 3, Agadakos 4

AEL 1964 : Keys 17 (3), Kyriakopoulos, Papanikolopoulos 19 (4), Papachristos 10, Teague 5, Kolokas 2, Klimavicius 6, Karavanas 6, Soskic, Ceranic 5

Full Stats >>>

@ Quotes

Gordon Herbert : "Congratulations to the opponents' coach and team. They made an excellent job in controlling the game's rythm. They made long offences and won the rebound battle. Withount any underestimation for Larisa, I am dissapointed with my players. We played as if we had hang-over after the Efes Pilsen victory. We lost too many rebounds, it's a serious issue, on which we will work definitely. Another subject is the control of the rythm and the only 6 assists we distributed. Thank God, we had only 6 turnover, while AEL had 19. The rebound is not only the frontline's task, exactly as the assist is not only the guards' responsibility. Serapinas was one of the best players in the friendly games. His performance declined as time went by, but he's still one of our most hard-working team players. Mottola is one of our best defensive players and his job doesn't appear in the stats. We have to be patient with him. He's one of the most responsible and professional players we got. You can't see what they are doing in the trainings, but in the games, you can see Hanno and Simonas encouraging their teammates. Those things are very important for a coach."

Kostas Pilafidis : "Congratulations to my players, they tried for 40 minutes and never gave up. The game was determined by our 19 mistakes and the 30 points of Massey. Despite him being a great player, he shouldn't have scored so many points. The responsibility is tottaly mine. We made a good effort and now we have to move on. We couldn't exploit our many rebounds and we couldn't limit Wright in the final quarter. We gave him a lot of open shots."

ARIS BC announces that the tickets for the upcoming A1 game vs AEL 1964, which will take place on Saturday 01/12, at 17:00 LT (16:00 cet), are available from Wednedsay. In this important game, you should all be present, in order to pack Alexandreio and support our team, in a proper way, to reach another victory in the A1 League.

Ticket prices:

Gates 1-4-7-8-9-10: 15 euros

Gates 2-3: 20 euros

Gates 5-6: 10 euros

There are also 5-euro tickets for kids from 6-12 years old.

For those of you that are interested, you can get your tickets daily from ARIS BC offices (from 09:00 to 18:00), in Alexandreio (tel. +30 2310.265600),  from ARIS A.C. offices, in Kleanthis Vikelidis VIP Gate (tel +30 2310.305402) and from the Alexandreio ticket boxes, on Saturday.

ARIS was more passionate than ever in this season and thanks to the support of the crowd, managed to beat Efes Pilsen 67-64 and make a substantial victory towards the qualification. ARIS played extraordinary defence, especially in the second quarter, as well as in the critical moments of the final quarter, and kept the Turks at -only- 64 points...

@ Report

ARIS entered the court determined to press defensively and cut the penetrations of the Turks, as well as the pick'n'rolls, set by David Blatt. ARIS managed to score the first 3 points of the game, with Tsaldaris making it from downtown. ARIS increased the lead to 7-2 and 10-6, while Efes had a really hard time to approach the paint, due to the very effective defence of Massey and Mottola. The entrance of Kuqo in the court gave the guests an extra help inside. The Albanian/Turk forward found easy baskets from close and led to the second foul of Mottola, who was benched. Consequently, the rythm of the game passed to the guests, who managed to close the quarter ahead with 3, 14-17.

In the beginning of the second quarter, Efes resumed their domination from inside and increased the lead to 7 (17-24), as Reyshawn Terry and Savvas Iliadis couldn't find the target. ARIS needed an obligatory time-out by Herbert, in order to stop the tempo and find answers to the threats posed by Blatt. And that was it! ARIS started to roll better and gradually taking charge of the rythm of the game. The defence was pressing all over the court, Massey was making extraordinary steals and dunks and the entire Alexandreio was on fire! The total 15-0 run reversed the situation and offered psychology and morale to the team, who was now winning 32-24. The final 32-25 of the halftime proved the incredible pressure of ARIS and the amazing performance of the second quarter.

In the third period, ARIS needed to continue playing the same defence, in order to maintain this lead. David Blatt was trying several formations, but Gordon Herbert was respectively adjusting his own. ARIS managed to keep the lead at safe levels and even increasing it to 11 (38-27, 42-31), while Efes was trying to threat from inside, with big man Woods and Andre Hutson. Mottola's third foul had weakened ARIS' defence and, thus, the lead fell to +6 (45-39), with the end of the quarter, which was terminated with a quick 3-8 run in favor of the Turks.

As against Maroussi, Bracey Wright chose the appropriate quarter to shoulder responsibility and support Jeremiah Massey in the scoring domain. The American guard used his strong weapon, his penetrations and burdened the opponents with fouls. In addition, in the crucial moments, he was cold-blooded from the charity line, eventually stopping at 20 points. Before that, the game had ended up in a real drama! Drew Nicholas' awakening and back-to-back mistakes by ARIS players gave Efes the chance of getting back in the game. An Arslan's three-pointer brought the guests almost equally to ARIS (52-51), with less than 5 minutes to go. ARIS was resorting to quick and hasty shots and it was clear that the team was in need of some personal attempts to get out of the dead end. Terry from the free-throw line formed the 54-51, but Woods was grabbing offensive rebounds and was giving his team second chances. With the score at 56-55 and with less than 2 minutes to go. In that moment, Bracey Wright made a difficult shot, received an extra foul. His free throw was missed, but Andre Hutson, in his attempt to send the ball away, scored an...own basket and gave ARIS a 5-point lead! Penn missed the shot and Wright made 2/2 from the charity to form the 62-55 and seemingly give ARIS the victory. However, a silly flagrant foul of Terry on Hutson, together with the successful shot of Efes' forward offered the Turks an extra offence. Hutson made the free throw and Drew Nicholas killed ARIS from outside with a downtown to complete the 6-0 run of Efes in a single offence! The score was now 62-61, but ARIS had still the upper hand, with the free throws. In this thrilling and suspensedul procedure, Herbert's players were cold-blooded and locked the game (67-64), despite the fact that Nicholas had a last open shot to tie the score...

@ Quarters

14-17, 32-25, 45-39, 67-64

@ Statistics

ARIS : Castle 8 (1), Terry 10, Tsaldaris 7 (1), Serapinas, Wright 20 (2), Kalaitzis, Mottla 6, Iliadis, Massey 13, Agadakos 3

Efes Pilsen : Nicholas 14 (2), Penn 5, Woods 9, Gregory 2, Gonlum 6, Wright, Erdogan, Bayav, Kuqo 8, Arslan 11 (1), Hutson 9

Full stats >>>

@ Quotes

Gordon Herbert (ARIS head coach) : "We achieved a very important win, which is based on our excellent performance at the end of the second quarter. This is the way I want to play: Great defense, fast tempo and good move of the ball. We got the momentum and managed to put the game in the right way. On the opposite side, I don’t like our reaction in the last 40 seconds and we have to work on this and to learn from our mistakes."

David Blatt (Efes Pilsen head coach) : "It was a strange match. Talking about statistics, we deserved to win but we didn't. Usually a team which is superior in assists, rebounds, block shots and evaluation wins the game, but tonight it didn't happen. Aris forced us into a lot of turnovers and also we missed some important free throws. Efes Pilsen is not ready yet, especially on offense, which needs to be improved."

Bracey Wright (ARIS player) : "We had lost two consecutive games, but the team recovered and we are all happy for the result. I was feeling confident and very aggressive, so I wanted to have the ball in the last minutes. Better days are to come for both the team and myself."

James Scoonie Penn (Efes Pilsen player) : "Aris ran a 15-0 and took the advantage, but we came back and we fought for the victory. This is a positive fact, but it was not enough for my team to escape with the victory. They took advantage of our turnovers and didn’t allow us to win."

ARIS BC announces that the tickets for the upcoming Euroleague game vs Efes Pilsen, which will take place on Wednesday 28/11, at 20:45 LT (19:45 cet), are available from Friday. Our goal can't be anything else than the victory and everyone of you that have supported the team in the good and the bad moments, should pack Alexandreio, in order to help our team continue its successful Euroleague route.

Ticket prices:

Gates 1-4-7-8-9-10: 20 euros

Gates 2-3: 25 euros

Gates 5-6: 10 euros

There are also 5-euro tickets for kids from 6-12 years old.

For those of you that are interested, you can get your tickets daily from ARIS BC offices (from 10:00 to 19:00), in Alexandreio (tel. +30 2310.265600),  from ARIS A.C. offices, in Kleanthis Vikelidis VIP Gate (tel +30 2310.305402), from ARIS fan clubs (Super3, Ierolochites, Gialloneri Evosmos) and from the Alexandreio ticket boxes, on Wednesday.

Having Bracey Wright in high levels of performance and despite being mediocre in offensive skills, ARIS put an end to its 4 in-a-row losses and passed from the home of Maroussi, winning 63-71 in Athens. Wright made his best appearence in Greece and scored 10 out of his 24 points in the final quarter, including two downtowns that defined the final result.

@ Report

The game didn't reach high standards, as both teams were trying to impose their rythm, with a lot of mistakes, though... Trevor Bryant took advantage of his flexible style and scored some close shots, while Massey and Mottola couln't cooperate defensively. Maroussi gained a 6-point lead (14- , but Wright shouldered responsibility and earned some fouls, scoring from the charity line. In addition, Jeremiah Massey nailed some hoops and ARIS closed the gap (19-15), by the end of the quarter.

In the second quarter, Maroussi managed to preserve its lead in the opening minutes (24-19), as ARIS was having a difficult time to approach the paint. However, the entrance of Kalaitzis organised ARIS' performance and the guests made a 11-2 run, getting ahead in the score (26-30). ARIS' high free-throw percentage was still occuring (17/1 and that's how, Herbert's players managed to close the half with a 3-point lead, 29-32, while Maroussi recorded a 7/18 field goal percentage.

In the third quarter, Lazaros Agadakos took action and tried to push inside the paint. ARIS made a quick run, establishing a 31-37 lead, but Glyniadakis used his heavy body to dominate inside and bring his team once again close to the score (41-42). At that point, ARIS was happy to break the defence of Maroussi twice, with 2 consecutive 3-pointers by Mottola and Kalaitzis, before the two teams heading to their benches, with ARIS leading 47-52.

In the final quarter and since ARIS could not find someone to get the team upon his shoulders, Bracey Wright decided to step up and prove his abilities. The American shooting guard was the main threat for Maroussi's defence, especially in the ultimate 3 minutes. Before that, Agadakos added 6 personal points, sending ARIS to a 9-point lead (50-59). But, once again, Maroussi took advantage of some defensive gaps of ARIS and closed the gap (55-59). ARIS strengthened its defence and circulated the ball in the offence, searching for Wright to attempt shots. With two back-to-back tripplets of his own, as well as with a crucial lay-up and two important free-throws, he "locked" ARIS victory and formed the final 63-71.

@ Quarters

19-15, 29-32, 49-52, 63-71

@ Statistics

Maroussi : Parker 9, Noeas, Charalampidis 14 (2), Boudouris 3 (1), Tountziaratis, Bryant 17 (1), Stefanidis 2, Kojadinovic, Paragios, Glyniadakis 12, Kaimakoglou 6

ARIS : Castle 7 (1), Tsaldaris 2, Serapinas, Wright 24 (3), Kalaitzis 7 (1), Iliadis, Mottola 9 (1), Tsairelis, Massey 9, Agadakos 13

Full stats >>>

@ Quotes

Soulis Markopoulos (Maroussi) : "We are not in a pleasant position in the standings of the league and that affects us, perhaps, psychologically... We couldn't find the solutions we needed, when ARIS pressed us. We have to make some adjustments in our play, in order for the good results to resume."

Gordon Herbert (ARIS) : "It was a real battle, lasting 40 minutes. We had some problems with our defensive rebounds, but Wright's crucial 3-pointers helped us a lot. Bracey showed who he really is."

Financial fee of 1.000 euros was imposed upon ARIS B.C. for the inappropriate slogans that were heard by ARIS fans, during the last A1 game against Panionios. The relevant remark was done by the Police Department of Thessaloniki.

Armani Jeans Milano has arrived in Thessaloniki with lots of problems, as they will be deprived of Massimo Bulleri, Reece Gaines and Cheyne Gadson, due to injuries. The Italians have no victory yet in Euroleague and the game vs ARIS is a good chance for them to reverse the situation. During their arrival in Thessaloniki, the players and coaches of Milano made some statements:

Attilio Caja (head coach) : "We have to do our best game, in order to improve constantly and have possibilities for the game in Alexandreio. This game might give a little more self-confidence to our bench players, who will be needed after the unjuries we had. We came to Greece, in order to win and not to make a practice. Euroleague is a serious competition and we have to respect it."

Dusan Vuksevic : "Even if we are in bad shape, we came in Greece to win. We have to believe in our abilities and not be dissapointed by the latest bad performances. Every victory gives self-confidence for the on-going of the season."

The Greek Cup draw has taken place today, in Thessaloniki and ARIS was drawn to play against Olympia Larissa on the road, on 22nd December 2007. However, the date is under re-arrangement, as the players of Gordon Herbert play for the Euroleague 2 days before this game and the most possible date is Sunday, 23rd December. If ARIS manages to overcome the obstacle of Olympia, they will qualify for the semi-finals, where they will face the winner of the game Aek-Olympiacos, again on the road. The semi-final series will take place on 6th February 2008 and the respective winners will compete for the trophy on March 29th 2008.

The full schedule of the 1/4 finals:

Olympia Larissa-ARIS

Aek-Olympiacos

Paok-Panathinaikos

Panellinios-Panionios

• The reactions ARIS people, after the draw:

Gordon Herbert (ARIS coach) : "It is a Greek Cup game and from the moment it's knock-out, there is no matter who you played against or where. Winner qualifies and loser is eliminated. I think we had a good, but tough, at the same time, draw, as we are playing away, only 2 days after another game, for Euroleague. Greek Cup is a whole different story, as it is an interesting and challenging tournament. I think it's good for our fans, as Larissa is close to Thessaloniki. Of course, we ahve high expectations and our target is to conquer the trophy. We know, though, that it won't be a piece of cake, as we are obligated to win 2 games on the road, as well as another time, in the final, that will take place in neutral ground."

Yiannis Damianidis (ARIS General Manager) : "We knew we would have to play a difficult opponent on the road and Olympia is such one. We hope everything goes well, but, even if we qualify, we will have to play on the road, once again. So, we have to be strong and qualify for the semi-finals and then to the final."

ARIS BC announces that the tickets for the upcoming Euroleague game vs Armani Jeans Milano, which will take place on Thurssday 22/11, at 21:30 LT (20:30 cet), are available from today, Monday. Our goal can't be anything else than the victory and everyone of you that have supported the team in the good and the bad moments, should pack Alexandreio, in order to help our team continue its successful Euroleague route.

Ticket prices:

Gates 1-4-7-8-9-10: 20 euros

Gates 2-3: 25 euros

Gates 5-6: 10 euros

There are also 5-euro tickets for kids from 6-12 years old.

For those of you that are interested, you can get your tickets daily from ARIS BC offices, in Alexandreio (tel. +30 2310.265600),  from ARIS A.C. offices, in Kleanthis Vikelidis VIP Gate (tel +30 2310.305402) and from the Alexandreio ticket boxes, on Thurssday.