"Ventspils" unused chances and a loss to PAOK at the end of the game

Guests started the game more successfully, scoring unanswered eight points in two minutes. Ventspils made its first points just at the beginning of the third minute, when Artjoms Butjankovs made a lay-up from close distance. After this shot Ventspils switched on their defensive mode, and in the four minutes PAOK were the ones unable to score. By the end of the quarter PAOK were able to regain the lead and extend it to seven points, PAOK’s Mark Carter scoring 11 points in the first quarter.

Ventspils were able to diminish the lead at the beginning of the second quarter, and then Zanis Peiners made an easy dunk from an assist by Mire Chatman, tying the game at 30:30. It happened three and a half minutes before the end of the halftime, it was the moment when both teams started to play faster with every second, and heated up the tempo of the game but still the biggest focus was on the defence. That’s why both teams did not score any more points after the dunk by Peiners.

The start of the second half Ventspils started off with an effective and successful offence in transition by Akselis Vairogs and Harvey Grant where the first made the assist, the latter finished it in the air with a “alley-oop”. During some moments Greeks had no problem to get past the defence set up by the hosst, but Latvians didn’t allow them to extend the lead, and after a bold three-pointer by Davis Lejasmeiers hosts got their first lead in the game – 44:41. There was a possibility to extend the lead to five points when Vairogs made space for Martins Meiers in the paint but the latter couldn’t get the ball into the basket, which resulted in a missed basket, while PAOK ended their run to the other side of the court with a basket and free throw thus tying the game once again.

The ending of the third quarter was just as unfruitful as the second one but PAOK regained a minimum lead. Defence was at its best in the beginning of the last quarter, “Ventspils” missed a lot of chances to score from under the basket, besides PAOK forced the guards of the hosts to make tough shots over the hands of their defenders. Greek team couldn’t use the missed opportunities by Ventspils until the 35th minute of the game, when Greeks extended their lead to eight points with just a few successful tours to “Ventspils” basket (49:57).

Ventspils did not hurry to pull out the white flag and give up, Vairogs made a three-pointer instead, the Latvian team held off the Greek offence and Troy Barnies diminished the lead to three points. 80 seconds until the end of the game Vairogs missed another free throw, while during the next offence Barnies once again were at his position and scored. In the next offence PAOK player Kostas Charalampidis stepped out of bounds while in transition. Ventspils had a chance to tie the game, and Latvians tried to play the ball under the basket, but Chatman’s rash assist was intercepted, that allowed PAOK to make some free throws and extend the lead up to four points. Chatman fixed his mistake straight away by making a three-pointer, but there wasn’t a lot of time left, and PAOK weren’t shy to foul with lead being just three points. That allowed the guests to win 66:63.

Thus Ventspils has three losses, and Latvian will have to try to end their losing streak on the road next week on Wednesday against “Stelmet” team in Poland. It must be noted that today Ventspils made just 13 out of 23 free throws.

BK "Ventspils" - PAOK 63:66 (12:19, 18:11, 14:15, 19:21)
Ventspils: Chatman 15, Vairogs 15, Barnies 13 (8 rebounds.), Butjankovs 6, Gulbis 5, Grant 4, Lejasmeiers 3, Peiners 2

PAOK: Carter 17, Vaughn 14, Kakaroudis 8, Langford 7, Charalampidis 7, Tsochlas 7, Odum 4, Saloustros 2