Dreamland Gran Canaria opened the defense of its BKT EuroCup title with a 66-82 victory at Aris Midea Thessaloniki.
Gran Canaria overcomes slow start, rolls past Aris 66-82

AJ Slaughter poured in 21 points, including 4 three-pointers, and Nicolas Brussino added 16 points in the Group B game. Aris, which has returned to the EuroCup for the first time after seven seasons away, was led by Roberto Galliant’s 22 points.
Aris is brilliant early
Gallinat drained a three-pointer to start the game and for Aris’s first points in the competition since 2015-16. The guard moved to eight points as the Aris lead grew to 12-4. Gran Canaria knocked down 3 three-pointers but another triple from Gallinat had the hosts up 21-13. Miguel Salvo began to step up for the visitors with 7 points but could not cut into the lead as Aris remained hot. Ronnie Harrell’s three-pointer at the end of the first quarter made it 28-20 and had Aris shooting 73 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes.
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Gran Canaria recovers by halftime
As hot as Aris was in the first quarter, it cooled off in the second frame, with just 2 points in the first 5 minutes and watched Gran Canaria pull within 30-29. The Spanish side finally took its first lead 32-34 on a Jovan Kljajic three-pointer. Sylven Landsberg added a three-point play and Gran Canaria’s cushion grew to 32-38. The score was 35-38 at the break.
Aris needed nearly 3 minutes to score its first basket in the second half and Brussino buried 2 three-pointers to push the Gran Canaria advantage to 38-46. Aris stood strong defensively to keep Gran Canaria in check and knotted the game 52-52. Vassilis Toliopoulis put Aris back ahead 55-54 only to see Andrew Albicy beat the buzzer at the other end and Gran Canaria was up 55-57 after 30 minutes.
The finish belongs to Slaughter
Gran Canaria again used its defense and held Aris scoreless for the first 5 minutes of the fourth quarter and Slaughter scored 9 points for a 55-71 margin. Aris could not get closer than 14 points the rest of the way.