PAOK overcomes Aris to make Euroleague
PAOK will be Greece’s third representative in next season’s Euroleague after seeing off Aris in the third-place playoff series through its 63-56 win on June 8.
With the best-of-five series tied at 2-2, the contest for a place in the qualifying round of Europe’s top club competition went down to the wire with PAOK enjoying home advantage.
The host dominated Game 5 as it led throughout the match at Pylaia in a tense atmosphere, with the game being interrupted several times after objects were thrown from the stands.
Led by Rawle Marshall (20 points) and Robert Dozier (17 points and 18 rebounds), coach Soulis Markopoulos?s players won the series with a score of 3-2 and returned to the Euroleague for the first time since 2001.
There is, however, a chance that the Euroleague will admit a fourth Greek club next season, in which case Aris will be admitted to the qualifiers and PAOK might go straight to the group stage, along with Panathinaikos and Olympiakos. This will be made known later this month.
