In the opening game of the season Aris BSA got a 70-64 win against Panellinios BC in the crowded home-court Alexandreio Melathron. Dimitris Tsaldaris (21 points & 2 steals) and Ivan Radenovic (17 points & 3 rbs) were the leaders from each team.
Aris BSA started enthusiastically the game, and lead the team of coach Ilias Zouros to many turnovers. Having in a great day the greek guard Dimitris Tsaldaris, the ''yellows'' had the leading in the score (25-14) by the end of the first quarter. During the second quarter, Panellinios BC managed to play strong defence, but Aris BSA also did the same, and as a result the two teams scored only 13 points till the end of the first half (38-27).
During the press conference coach Ilias Zouros noticed:
"Congratulations to Aris BSA for the win, we lost our concentration during the last minutes of the game and the great number of our turnovers was the main fact for our lose. Offensively the team has a great talent and during the next games I am sure that we will be better. Also, Dimitris Tsaldaris was the scoring leader of Aris BSA, and if I am not mistaken he managed to have 5 out of 5 3-point shoots and we could not stop him. It is the beggining of the season, we have a lot of work to do in the courts and definetaly we do not give up. As for my previous year here in Thessaloniki, being head-coach of Aris was something special for me and I am thankful to the fans."
Coach Andrea Mazzon stated:
"The open-home-court game is something very difficult, and it is more difficult when you face a really good team like Panellinios BC. Panellinios is a team with good abilities, so we had to show extra effort in our defensive game, and this is obvious by the fact that we lead them to make 21 turnovers. I would be glad if in every game we reach doubles in the steals and assists levels. As for the crowd, it is something fantastic to have a full home-court. The coaching staff does an incredible job, and today we were unlucky because some pleyers were out of trainings during the last days, but I do not want to look for an aliby. We have to learn from our mistakes in order to get better and better."
"Congratulations to Aris BSA, it was a really beautiful opening season's game and Aris got a fair win against us. We had a terrible first quarter and that was the fact that we lost the game. We appeared much more better in the second half, we managed to be close to the score but unfortunately we did not win the game, because we were not concentrated in crucial moments. As for being Aris' player during the last two seasons, I am really thankful but every good has an end."
Spencer Nelson stated for the ''yellows'':
"Panellinios BC is a good team and managed to play good in a tough environment like our home-court. We had some ups and downs in our performance, we started enthusiastically and quickly the game but then we had some wrong choices. We have to continue to progress. As for me, I have to be better in my offensive game, and if I could, I would like to score and pass in every game in order to help my team.''
It the other two games of the first day of the greek league Olympiacos won Aigaleo BC (65-90 ) and Olympia Larissa also won Trikala 2000 (67-66 ).
