Aris overcame a disastrous start before claiming a 74-78 victory over Bulgarian champion Lukoil Academic in the first leg of the Eurocup Qualifying Round series on Wednesday in Sophia.
The win gives Aris a four-point cushion before the second game, an important advantage with the aggregate winner of the two games advances to the Eurocup Regular Season.
A monster game from P.J. Tucker with 26 points and 13 rebounds led the winners, to outrebound Lukoil 34-46. Borovnjak finished the game with 15 points and 10 rebounds and Tapoutos tallied 12 points and nine boards.
Pierre Pierce added 14 points and five assists for the winners. Brandon Bowman paced the hosts with 18 points, Damjan Stojanski netted 13, Travis Peterson 12 and Dominic James scored 10 and dished six assists.
Lukoil opened the game in brilliant fashion with Peterson scoring on the game’s first possession and Bowman scoring inside and out as he tallied half the points in a 10-0 start.
Tucker stepped up for Aris to help narrow the gap to 19-14 after 10 minutes.
Stojanski’s hot hand kept Lukoil in control and Kaspars Kambala restored a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter.
Tencho Banev pumped the advantage to 37-25, but Pierce from the line and Koumpouras from downtown authored a 0-8 push to narrow the gap to 37-33 at halftime.
Dunston made it a two-point game with the first points of the third quarter. Lukoil held on to the lead, but not by much as Tucker continued to attack. Borovnjak followed a missed Tucker layup to give Aris its first lead, 50-51, with four minutes left in the quarter.
Lukoil bounced back with a Stoykov triple and took a 61-58 lead into the fourth quarter. Tapoutos swung the lead back to Aris and though it switched hands again, Tucker pushed Aris ahead 67-73 from the line.
Stojanski and Bowman cut it to 2, but that was as close as Lukoil got and Tapoutos scored at the buzzer to give Aris a four-point lead to take back to Greece for the second leg.
APOEL (CYP) 55 – Bennetton Basket (ITA) 97
Benetton Basket demolished APOEL Nicosia 55-97 on Tuesday in the Eurocup Qualifying Round.
A 2-26 run on either side of halftime settled the game’s outcome, while a similar onslaught in the fourth quarter probably sentenced the series.
Nicosia will need a miracle to come back next week for the second and last game.
Greg Brunner led six double-figure scorers for Benetton with 19 points. Massimo Bulleri added 13, Devin Smith and Jacub Wojciechowski 12 each, Ryan Toolson and Alessandro Gentile 11 each.
Apoel got 17 points from Charron Fisher, 10 each from Ian Hanavan and Augustinas Vitas.
Benetton jumped ahead 8-11 on the first 8 points by Brunner. Donatas Motiejunas joined Brunner and finished the first quarter with a dunk at 12-17 for the guests.
Smith helped Benetton finish that run at 1-11. Hanavan spurred Nicosia’s to pull within 22-24, then Davis did the honors of burying a three-pointer that gave the hosts their first lead.
But that awakened the sleeping gianτ in Benetton, which went on a 2-22 tear to finish the first half.
Massimo Bulleri joined Brunner and Smith, who combined on the last 11 points before halftime, when Benetton led 27-46.
Bulleri’s basket late in the third quarter had the difference flirting with the 30-point mark, 35-64, but by midway through the fourth, the margin had sky-rocketed to 45, at 43-87, on Wojciechowski’s dunk.