Le Mans defeated Aris BSA 2003 Tuesday 73-78 ending all hope for the home team to remain in the Eurocup. Aris needed the victory and another result to surpass Budivelnik in the Group J standings, but the hosts could not come through against Le Mans, who came back from a 55-50 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to hang on for the win. Ben Dewar was the hero for the visitors with 10 consecutive points that highlighted a definitive 0-12 run in the final quarter. The guard paced the winners with 25 points - 14 of them in the final quarter – and 6 rebounds. Brandon Bowman scored 14 and Antoine Diot totaled 11 for Le Mans, which bows out of the Eurocup with a 2-4 record in Group J. Aris could not overcome a horrendous three-point-shooting night with only 4 of 21 triples made. Bobby Brown paced Le Mans with 22 points and 8 boards. Christos Tapoutos added 17 points and Dejan Borovnjak tallied 9 points and 9 rebounds in defeat.

Aris went inside early, getting John Thomas some touches in an attempt to open things up for the backcourt. Kostas Charalampidis drove for a layup and Brown hit the game’s first three-pointer to put the hosts ahead 7-4. Antoine Diot answered on a drive and Antoine Pellin found Michailis Kakiouzis beyond the arc to flip-flop the lead in favor of Le Mans, 9-11. With crisp ball movement on both sides and high-percentage shot selection, Dewar’s consecutive layups set the opening quarter’s biggest margin at 9-15. Aris totaled 14 points in the paint and kept riding Brown and Thomas until the close of the period, reached at a 17-18 advantage for the visitors. Dewar stayed hot at the start of the second quarter and Le Mans made a conscious effort to attack the heart of the hosts’ defense. After Hatzivrettas and Charalampidis drained consecutive jumpers for Aris, Joao Paulo Batista went to work in the paint and scored on a layup and Bowman tied the score at 25-25 with a rim-rattling dunk. Batista scored again on a post move and Diot notched his 9th point for the visitors, but Hatzivrettas closed the scoring with a powerful dunk and the half ended at 34-34.

Kakiouzis put Le Mans ahead with a layup after the break, but a 10-2 run by Aris, highlighted by a Tapoutos dunk and 7 consecutive points by Brown put the home team up 44-38. Le Mans tried to buckle down on the defensive end and stretch the floor on offense, but could not capitalize on its perimeter looks while Aris kept attacking the rim and Brown netted consecutive layups. Just as the hosts seemed to be pulling away, Dewar again came through with a gutsy three-point play and the final quarter was reached at 52-48. The guests stayed aggressive on the defensive end to start the fourth quarter, but Brown kept the hot hand going, this time from behind the arc, even as Bowman bookended the bomb with a pair of layups that had his team in the hunt at 55-52. The second one spearheaded a 0-12 run by the visitors built on four consecutive Dewar baskets that included a pair of triples, and suddenly Le Mans was in control 55-62 with three minutes left in the game. Dejan Borovnak finally broke the streak with a layup and kept the hope alive for the hosts by hitting another after a Henry Kahudi dunk to make it 59-64 with a full minute to go. But Tapoutos whiffed on a long-range bomb that would have made it a one-possession game in the closing minute and Dewar put on the finishing touches from the line.