Both teams shot quite well in the entertaining thriller.
Ulm's offense shines through in OT to overcome Aris's offensive fireworks
ratiopharm Ulm put on an impressive offensive display against a vaunted Aris Midea Thessaloniki defense and even survived an uncommon Aris scoring output to grab an 88-99 overtime victory.
The game went back and forth throughout and Ulm prevailed thanks to producing nearly triple figures in points against an Aris team that had allowed a EuroCup-low 70.1 points to its opponents coming into the game.
Ulm shot 68.4% on two-pointers and 40.9% from long range, numbers that were much better than the 47.6% and 31.4% shooting respectively that Aris had given up thus far this season.
“We knew the atmosphere in Greece. We knew they were going to be aggressive. And I think we matched that aggressiveness and that’s why we won,” said Ulm guard Juan Nunez, who collected 14 points and 10 of Ulm’s 31 assists in the game.
“We found our solutions late in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter and overtime, we were able to deal with their pressure. Offensively we shared the ball and found good solutions,” added Ulm head coach Anton Gavel.
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Ulm’s offensive performance was not a major surprise as the German side had averaged 88.4 points, 21.3 assists and 39.2% on three-pointers, all ranked fourth in the league.
But Aris produced one of its best offensive showings of the season, scoring a season-high 88 points which were 19.9 points more than its EuroCup-low average. The Greek side also buried 13-of-30 three-pointers (43.3%), which was well above its 27.1% clip, which was also last in the league.
Aris also answered every punch that Ulm delivered. The biggest lead in the first 40 minutes was 9 points (30-21) and that was early early in the second quarter. The rest of regulation was tight and back and forth. It wasn’t until the overtime that Ulm showed its mettle and Aris finally succumbed to its lack of offensive weapons.
“We showed our character. We are a young team but we showed that we have character, that we want to play these kinds of games. I think it was character,” Nunez said.
Ulm can see this win as a strong character test that it passed while Aris will be disappointed it couldn’t grab the home win, which would have been a major help in its fight to reach the playoffs.