The Greek side celebrated its first home victory under new management
Aris stays perfect with 98-76 thrashing of Hamburg



Aris Thessaloniki Betsson has recorded its second straight win by crushing Veolia Towers Hamburg 98-76 in front of a sell-out crowd at Palais des Sports on Wednesday evening. With both new owner Richard Hsiao and club legend Nick Galis in attendance, the Greek side led from start to finish, grabbing a comfortable victory in a historic first home BKT EuroCup clash under the new management.
Bryce Jones led all scorers with 16 points, with Elijah Mitrou-Long bagging 15, and 18-year-old guard Panagiotis Lefas adding 13 on his EuroCup debut. For the guests, Zacharie Perrin completed a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds, with Leonard Thorpe scoring 13.
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Aris hit the ground running with a 5-0 surge, but Perrin netted three straight buckets, including a couple of powerful dunks, to tie it at 8-8. Yet, Mitrou-Long scored 7 points off the bench and set up Bryn Forbes for a midrange jumper, with the hosts taking a 20-14 lead into the second quarter.
Two straight triples from Stylianos Poulianitis and Georgios Gkiouzelis were followed by layups from Ronnie Harrell and Vasillis Kazamias as Aris pulled away, 30-16. Hamburg responded with a 0-5 run, but five straight points by Jones restored a 39-24 lead. Then, Jakob Dwight Forester added four points to his tally from inside, with Aris securing a 45-28 cushion at halftime.
Mitrou-Long became the first player to record double digits in scoring with a jumper before six consecutive points by Forbes extended Aris’s lead to 57-36. Jones took over with five points of his own and teed up Lefas, who drilled one from deep to make it 70-45 after 30 minutes.
Both defenses loosened up in the fourth quarter, with the game turning into a back-and-forth clash. Aris head coach Bogdan Karaicic gave more playing time to youngsters such as 15-year-old Chrysostomos Chatzilamprou, who got his first EuroCup points with a triple, as well as 18-year-olds Kazamias and Lefas, who scored in double figures on his debut.