PAOK plucks road win after tough affair at Ventspils


PAOK Thessaloniki edged Ventspils 63-66 in a game that came down to the closing seconds. The victory was PAOK’s second in three road games and saw it improve to 3-1 in Group F. Ventspils slipped to 1-3. Though PAOK started strong, Venstpils came back to tie it by halftime, 30-30, and the game remained close the rest of the way. A clutch triple from Mire Chatman brought Ventspils within 60-61 in the final minute, however perfect free throw shooting from Kostas Charalampidis helped PAOK claim the win. Marc Carter led PAOK’s attack with 17 points and 9 rebounds and Julian Vaughn compiled 14 and 7. Chatman and Akselis Vairogs scored 15 points each for Ventspils and Troy Barnies added 13.

Carter with a basket-plus-foul and a shot from downtown led PAOK to a 0-8 start. Artjoms Butjankovs opened the scoring for Ventspils before Chatman with 4 straight points capped a 9-0 run in response. Carter sank a second three en route to an 11-15 PAOK advantage. Kevin Langford added 4 points to boost the visitors to 12-19 after 10 minutes. Vaughn’s slam put the visitors up 9 at the start of the second quarter. Ventspils stayed in the hunt thanks to triples from Chatman and Vairogs. After closing within 2 on three occasions, Zanis Peiners’s dunk tied the game at 30-30 at halftime.

Carter opened the second half with a three, but Ventspils traded baskets successfully to tie the game five times before pulling ahead 44-41 on a Davis Lejasmeiers triple. Kostas Karakoudis then tied it with a basket-plus-foul of his own and went on to split free throws to give PAOK a 44-45 edge through three quarters. Karakoudis stayed hot with the first basket of the fourth. Barnies kept the hosts within 1, but Vaughn free throws were followed by an Apollon Tsochlas three that gave PAOK a 48-54 cushion. Langford put the visitors up 8 with a three, however a triple from Vairogs and layup from Barnies made it a one-shot game. Carter put PAOK up 57-61 with clutch free throws with 16 seconds remaining, but Chatman came right back with a triple. In the end, 4 free throws from Charalampidis and Ventspils’s failure to get an offensive rebound after Chatman intentionally missed his second free throw at 63-65 sealed the PAOK victory.