Aris left out as Panellinios and Maroussi go on
Maroussi and Panellinios advanced last night to the next group stage of basketball’s Eurocup, the continent’s second-tier competition, while Aris dramatically missed out. Maroussi won the top spot of its group as it beat Roanne 83-72 in France and ended up level on points with Croatia’s Zadar. Both teams have qualified but Maroussi finished first on a favorable head-to-head record. Loukas Mavrokefalidis led the scoring for Maroussi with 22 points. Panellinios managed to snatch the ticket for the next round from Aris, as the Kypseli side defeated Turk Tele-kom 82-74 and Aris lost in Israel to Bnei Hasharon. Panelli-nios benefited from the better head-to-head record with Aris. Panellinios completely dominated the game against the group winners and deserved the win at the Helle-nikon sports hall. Ivan Radenovic had 20 points for Panellinios, with Brad Newley adding another 16. Aris suffered an 89-86 loss that takes it out of Europe early on. The last-ditch effort by the Greeks to get back into the game from 10 points down proved too little, too late. Now Maroussi and Panellinios will be in the same group, along with Dynamo Moscow and Khimki, both from Russia. The top two from the group will reach the quarterfinals. Tonight and tomorrow see the last round of games for the Euroleague, which will decide where the three Greek teams will end up. At 8.30 p.m. today Panionios will host Italy’s Armani Jeans Milano and needs to win by at least 32 points to have any hopes of advancing to the next round. Panionios will also need Turkey’s Efes Pilsen to beat Real in Madrid and CSKA to defeat Partizan in Moscow. Then at 9.45 p.m. Panathinaikos will entertain Prokom Trefl of Poland. The Greens have an outside chance of qualifying as second from their group if they win and Italy’s Siena lose at Nancy in France. Finally, tomorrow night Olympiakos meets France’s Le Mans at Neo Faliron and needs a win as well as an away victory by Maccabi Tel Aviv over Unicaja Malaga to finish top.
