VARESE (Basketball Champions League) – PAOK guard Darryl Bryant kept his composure and made four free-throws from as many trips to the stripe in the final 12 seconds off a nail-biting Group C clash for PAOK to snatch a 75-70 victory at storied Openjobmetis Varese on Tuesday night.

After Varese claimed a 60-57 lead with just over six minutes left on the clock, Bryant and Linos Chrysikopoulos instigated a 9-0 run for the Greek side which saw them jump ahead 66-60 with 2:07 remaining to play. Varese tried to stop the rot from beyond the arc again and again but misfired on their last seven three-point attempts. PAOK held the Italian side to a catastrophic 2-of-19 from downtown on the night.

"It was a very tough game but every game on the road is tough, the last time in Poland we played three overtimes and we lost," said PAOK guard Zanis Peiners. "It was a one-point game till the end, we have now put together a winning streak and we have to continue like this. We tried to play slow and smart, execute every possession and every set from a good position, that explains the low score."

Peiners led PAOK with 14 points and six rebounds, while Bryant and Chrysikopoulos finished with 11 points apiece, the latter also adding five boards. Keith Clanton had a game-high 13 rebounds to go with his five points.

"In the first half we allowed 25 points in the paint, so we talked at half-time about how to solve this problem and we solved it by playing team defence," said PAOK head coach Soulis Markopoulos. "Our defence enabled us to control the boards, we took 51 rebounds and that was the key to our win."