Aris BSA 2003 held on for a tough 51-58 victory at GasTerra Flames on Tuesday. Sam Muldrow scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Aris to its second win in three Group C games, which is good for second place at the halfway point in the regular season. After a very tight first half, which ended with the visitors up 20-22, Aris pulled away and took a double-digit lead in the third and upped it to 15 in the fourth. Jason Dourisseau led an impressive Flames’ comeback to within 3, but Aris had just enough down the stretch to lock up the win. Dimitris Vergins added 11 points and Ronald Davis had 7 points and 8 rebounds for the victors. Dourisseau paced the home team with 19 points and 7 rebounds and Sergio De Randamie added 10 points as GasTerra dropped to 0-3.

De Randamie opened the scoring for the hosts on the game’s first possession. Muldrow got Aris on the board with a tip-in a minute later. A pair of second-chance baskets by Dourisseau staked GasTerra out to a 7-2 lead, but a Muldrow slam soon had Aris back within one score. Bryan Defares’s steal and slam kept GasTerra ahead only for a Vergins bucket to even the score at 9-9 after 10 minutes. Dan Mavraides gave Aris its first lead early in the second quarter and a Michailis Tsairelis score capped a 0-8 Aris run. A pair of Sergio Kerusch drives put the visitors ahead 11-17 midway through the second quarter. De Randamie answered quickly and Dourisseau scored again on the glass to make it 15-18. Muldrow extended the Aris edge to 7, but a David Bell triple and free throws by Dourisseau narrowed the gap to 20-22 at the break.

Ronald David and Muldrow helped keep Aris ahead after the halftime stop. Dourisseau tried to fuel GasTerra and his free throw made it 25-29 before Kevin McCleery made it a 2-point game. However Aris reeled off 9 unanswered points through a Mavraides basket-plus-foul, Giorgos Bogris free throws and 4 points from Vergins. Defares ended the Flames’ drought only to see Vergins make it 29-41 with a triple to close the third quarter. Bogris got involved down low before Mavraides connected from behind the arc to lift Aris to a 33-48 lead. Dourisseau carried GasTerra with a pair of triples, before Bell connected too from downtown and a De Randamie slam gave the local fans hope. Avis Wyatt’s basket with just over four minutes left capped an 11-0 charge and made it 47-50. Dimitrios Tsaldaris answered with a well-times triple. Defares and Muldrow traded scores, but Wyatt kept the Flames alive at 51-55 with 49 seconds to play. However Davis sank 3 free throws over the next two possessions and GasTerra missed twice from downtown, which allowed Aris to walk away with a tough win.