Styles Scores 24 as Iraklis Beat Karditsa 71-53 for First GBL Win

By Taki Panos

For twenty minutes on Saturday, the Ivanofeio sounded more like a waiting room than a basketball arena. Then the Old Man woke up. Iraklis beat Karditsa 71-53 in Round 3 of the Stoiximan Greek Basket League, turning a six-point halftime deficit into a comfortable win and finally putting a first league victory on the board this season, as Sport24 reported. American guard Dontrez Styles led the way with 24 points and 10 rebounds, and the home crowd went home a lot happier than it was at the break.

Some background for anyone new to this club. Iraklis are the blue and white basketball side of the historic Thessaloniki sports club of the same name, with a basketball department that dates to 1921, two Greek championships from 1928 and 1935, and home games at the Ivanofeio Sports Arena, according to Wikipedia. If you are planning a trip north, our Thessaloniki city overview is a good place to start. Greek media call the club the Gireos, the Old Man, and Saturday's reports used the nickname with obvious relief.

The relief made sense. Iraklis had looked sharp in Europe, going 2-0 in the FIBA Europe Cup, including the 90-73 win over Würzburg we covered earlier this week, but they had opened the league with losses to Olympiacos at home and Peristeri on the road, per ERT Sports and to10. Karditsa arrived unbeaten at 2-0. Before the game, Iraklis assistant coach Stavros Evgeneiadis warned that the visitors came off wins over Aris and Vikos Falcons and that his team had to "match their toughness" and "control the rebounds" for 40 minutes (translated from Greek, via ERT Sports).

For most of the first half, Karditsa did exactly what Evgeneiadis feared. After Iraklis went up 14-10, the visitors answered with a 13-0 run built around Jordan McRae and a three from Nikos Gikas to lead 23-14 just after the 14th minute, ERT Sports and the league's official site, ESAKE, both reported. A Justin Turner three helped stretch it to 29-18 a few minutes later. Iraklis looked rushed, and the shots simply were not falling.

Gazzetta's numbers told the story of that half: Iraklis made just 3 of 15 three-point attempts and had 6 assists against 12 turnovers, the outlet reported. A late Styles three cut the gap to 29-23 at halftime, per ESAKE. Honestly, it was not pretty basketball from either side. Low scoring, hurried possessions and a lot of missed open looks. If you had walked in at halftime, you would not have bet on a blowout.

Karditsa still led 40-31 in the 24th minute, per ESAKE and Gazzetta. Then the game flipped. Iraklis turned up the pressure on defense, the visitors started taking hurried shots, and the crowd at the Ivanofeio got loud and stayed loud, ERT Sports wrote. Threes from Styles and Mastrogiannopoulos pushed Iraklis in front 52-44, and the third quarter ended 52-46, according to Gazzetta. That stretch was the whole game in miniature: defense first, then the shooting followed.

Styles finished the job early in the fourth. He scored seven points in the opening two minutes and twenty seconds of the quarter, and his fifth three on six attempts made it 61-50, ESAKE and Gazzetta reported. Iraklis won the second half 48-24, per ERT Sports, with Karditsa managing only 24 points after the break, Gazzetta noted. The home side closed with its biggest lead of the night, 18 points, at the final buzzer, according to to10.

The box score backs up the eye test. Styles, 24, finished with 24 points on 2 of 3 twos and 5 of 7 threes, plus 10 rebounds and 2 assists, per Athina 9.84 and ESAKE. Hassan Diarra added 10 points, Noah Horchler had 8 points with double-digit rebounds, and Mastrogiannopoulos chipped in 6, the Athina 9.84 box score and to10 showed. For Karditsa, Turner led with 14 points and McRae added 10, according to Sport24 and Gazzetta.

Iraklis coach Zoran Lukic did not dress it up. "The first half was disgusting. Our defense was not that bad, since they scored only 29 points, but on offense we made far too many mistakes," he said, adding that at halftime he asked his players to keep defending, to be quicker in transition and to make faster decisions, and that "that was the key in the second half" (translated from Greek, via ERT Sports). He also praised the fans: "When we win, they support us, and when we lose, they criticize us. They have every right to do that."

Karditsa coach Nikos Papanikolopoulos was just as blunt about his own side. "The effort cannot be there only when you are five or six points ahead or when the game is tied," he said, adding that his team stopped playing, especially on defense, once it built its lead. "You have to feel comfortable in the tough games too, the ones that end up around 55 to 60 points. You cannot feel comfortable only when the game goes to 85 or 90 points. It is a big lesson for us, for a team that will try to achieve things" (translated from Greek, via ERT Sports).

My take: this was not a masterpiece, and Lukic knows it. But early-season wins like this one matter more than the highlight-reel nights. Iraklis showed they can win ugly, they found a second-half identity built on defense, and Styles looks like a player who can carry an offense when the ball stops moving. The worry is obvious. You cannot spot a decent team a 29-18 lead every week. Fix the turnovers and the first-half shot selection, and this group can climb the table quickly.

Next up, Iraklis travel to Lefkada to face Doxa Lefkadas on Saturday, October 24 at 17:00 Athens time, while Karditsa visit Panathinaikos at the Telekom Center Athens at 19:00 the same day, per Sport24. Round 3 was a good one for the Thessaloniki clubs, too, after Aris beat Maroussi 74-57 and PAOK won 88-84 in Rhodes. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for the next round. One win down for the Old Man. Plenty more to chase.

Sources: Sport24, Gazzetta, ERT Sports, ESAKE, to10, Athina 9.84, Wikipedia.

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