Asvel Basket picked up its first win in Group J by routing visiting Aris 79-52. Hilton Armstrong scored 8 points to cap a 21-0 run that bridged the first and second quarters to put the hosts ahead 31-9. The scoreboard showed 39-18 at halftime. Aris made a valiant effort to close the gap to 12 early in the fourth quarter before Kim Tillie and Edwin Jackson put the game away. The result leaves both Asvel and Aris with 1-3 records, but another loss for either team will end its chances of reaching the Quarterfinals. Armstrong paced Asvel with 18 points and 8 rebounds, Tillie scored 12 and Jackson 11. Sergio Kerusch paced Aris with 9 points and 7 rebounds.

Leo Westermann scored for the hosts on the game’s first possession and Dimitrios Verginis answered for Aris. Tillie boosted Asvel, but Matej Krusic dominated at both ends and scored 5 quick points to put the visitors ahead 6-7. Armstrong’s first basket put Asvel on top. Ronald David closed the gap to 10-9 midway through the first quarter. But then Asvel stepped up on defense to deny Aris. Four different players scored in succession for the hosts, including Dimitrios Haritopoulos’s first Eurocup points with the team, as Asvel pulled away. Jackson free throws boosted Asvel to its first double-digit lead before Livio Jean-Charles made it 23-9 at the end of the first quarter. Armstrong then scored the first 8 points of the second quarter to cap a 21-0 run that put the game away at 31-9. Sam Muldrow eventually ended Aris’s 10-minute scoring drought and Dimitrios Tsaldaris added a triple. Threes by Phil Goss and Dijon Thompson saw Asvel extend the margin to 23 points before David made it 39-18 at halftime.

Aris came out for the second half looking determined to make the score more respectable and a Verginis triple early in the third quarter gave the visitors hope. But Thompson and Westermann made that hope short lived. However Kerusch heated up to trim the deficit to 55-40 by the end of the quarter as Aris outperformed its entire first half point total in just nine third-quarter minutes. A Christos Tapoutos triple gave Asvel warning, but all three times Aris closed within 12, Asvel answered. Alas Jackson and Tillie combined for 9 points in a row to restore Asvel’s total control and the hosts marched to a comfortable victory.