Aris Beat Derthona 88-68 to Stay Perfect in the EuroCup

By Taki Panos

For about 33 minutes on Wednesday night, this one felt like a coin flip. Then Aris slammed the door. Vassilis Spanoulis's side beat Derthona Tortona 88-68 at the Alexandreio in Thessaloniki in Round 3 of the EuroCup, as Gazzetta reported, closing with a 20-4 burst over the last seven minutes to stay perfect at 3-0. Derthona drop to 1-2. On the scoreboard it reads like a comfortable 20-point win. Inside the arena, it was a lot more nervous than that for most of the night.

For readers new to the competition, the EuroCup is the second tier of European club basketball, one step below the EuroLeague where Olympiacos and Panathinaikos play. Aris opened at Le Mans on September 29, according to the club schedule, then beat Burgos 93-80 at home on October 7 to make it two from two, as in.gr reported. Add the 88-58 rout of AEK at Nick Galis Hall in the Greek league, and the yellow and black have turned a shaky start into a very good October.

The opening quarter went to script. Dimitrijevic and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl drove Aris to an early 20-10 lead, per OA Sport, and the hosts finished the period ahead 31-21. The only thing keeping the Italians in touch was Maddox, who already had 10 points after ten minutes, Novasports noted. It looked like the kind of night where the home side cruises and the crowd starts singing early. Basketball rarely reads the script that politely, and this game certainly did not.

The second quarter flipped everything. Aris went 1 of 10 from three in that period, Novasports counted, and 4 of 14 for the half, according to Gazzetta. Derthona found life through Durham and Gorham alongside Maddox, tied the game at 44, and only a late free throw sent Aris into the locker room up 45-44. Novasports described Spanoulis as furious with his team's defending during that stretch. Watching a ten-point lead vanish at home will do that to any coach.

The third quarter was a tug of war. Maddox put Derthona ahead 46-45 right after the break, OA Sport recorded, before Aris answered with a 7-0 run. Back-to-back threes from Mitrou-Long and Charalampopoulos pushed the lead to 60-51, per Gazzetta and Novasports, but the hosts could not land the knockout punch. Derthona kept chipping away, and it was 62-55 after three. Good defense, not much flow on offense. That was the story for long stretches.

The fourth quarter opened with a complication. Liddell's disqualification squeezed Spanoulis's rotation, Gazzetta wrote, even as a Mokoka basket helped push the lead to 68-58. Derthona refused to fold. Maddox hit yet another three to make it 68-64 with about six minutes left, as OA Sport and Novasports both reported. Momentum had swung their way, and one more run from the visitors would have made this a very different evening for the home side.

That is where this team showed what it is made of. Aris held Derthona without a point for roughly four minutes, per Novasports and AlphaNews, and Matt Morgan took over. He scored four straight points for 72-64, then hit the three that made it 78-64, Gazzetta reported. The fourth quarter finished 26-13 for the hosts, according to TA NEA, and Morgan scored 11 of his points in that final period. Closing time, and he knew it.

Morgan led Aris with 23 points, per AlphaNews and TA NEA. Robinson-Earl added 19 points and 9 rebounds, and Dimitrijevic chipped in 15 points. Gazzetta named Morgan its man of the match and credited Birch with some big defensive plays. On the other side, Maddox finished with 26 points, per OA Sport and Novasports, a superb night from a player who carried Derthona for long stretches and simply ran out of help when it mattered most.

Spanoulis kept it measured afterwards. "We had a good first quarter, a very bad second quarter and an impressive second half. Our defense was fantastic," he said, as quoted by Novasports (translated from Greek). "The most important thing for me is to keep working and keep winning. I would like to thank our fans, it was a fantastic atmosphere today. It is still October, we have to keep up the effort." TA NEA led with the same point about the second half and the defense.

Zoom out and the picture is encouraging. Aris opened the Greek league season with a home loss to Karditsa, as in.gr noted, and plenty of people wondered how quickly this roster would come together. Since then, the team has beaten AEK, Burgos and Derthona, and the defense has started to look like a Spanoulis defense. It also matters for Greek basketball more widely. PAOK, the other Greek side in the EuroCup, just took its first loss in Lithuania, so Aris are carrying the flag at the top for now.

My take: this was not a masterpiece, and Spanoulis knows it. A team with real ambitions cannot keep giving away entire quarters like that second one, especially on the road, where the crowd will not drag it back into games. Still, I like what the last seven minutes said. When the game got tight, Aris got tougher, not tighter. Defense first, Morgan with the ball, the crowd behind them. That is a formula that can carry a team a long way in this competition, as long as it shows up for 40 minutes and not just the final 10.

Up next is a trip to Germany to face the Rostock Seawolves on Tuesday, October 20, at 21:00 Greek time, per the Aris schedule and Novasports. For more Greek basketball, football and Greek athletes around the world, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Three games, three wins. October is going nicely in Thessaloniki.

Sources: Gazzetta, Novasports, TA NEA, OA Sport, AlphaNews, in.gr, Aris BC.

Image: Aris crest, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).