ATHENS (Basketball Champions League) - AEK got 27 points from Dusan Sakota to secure an 82-72 win over MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg in Group E action in the Game of the Week.
 
Sakota went 10/17 from the floor and added 5 rebounds to help AEK improve to 7-5 with an upset win over the Group E leaders who despite the loss are still 8-4.

The game was not short of swings, it was AEK who got the better of the early exchanges, being dominant with a 24-12 opening period, and whilst the second quarter both teams match each other punch for punch, the third quarter was where Ludwigsburg stamped their authority on the game, led by Tekele Cotton and Jack Cooley, who finished with 20 points-a-piece.

With Ludwigsburg holding a 59-54 lead heading into the final period, Sakota knocked down back to back threes to tie it up at 61. Multiple lead changes ensued, before AEK grabbed control of the contest for good on a Milosevic free throw with a little less than 5 minutes remaining, outscoring MHP 15-6 the rest of the way. 


"Today it was a fun game," said AEK's Kostas Vasileiadis. "I enjoyed it a lot because we started very good, first half we played great defence, we ran the floor, we made some shots.

"Third quarter we were very, very bad, we forgot everything, we made bad selections of threes, we stopped playing defence. Fourth quarter we didn't have a choice. We played great defence, we fought a lot, we play our game and at the end we won, and we deserved it."

Ludwigsburg's Cotton commented after the game:

"They came out playing well, we had a little surge but they had the final surge and won the game. It was a tough ball game on both sides."