19 September, 2017
06 May, 2018
1 Delroy James (GRE)
17/10/2017
Game Report
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AEK prevails in another overtime thriller hosted by Umana Reyer

VENICE (Basketball Champions League) - AEK Athens scraped a 103-101 overtime triumph at Umana Reyer Venezia on Tuesday with Mike Green leading the charge against his former team.

Green, who played for Umana Reyer in the 2015-16 campaign and then competed for Pinar Karsiyaka in Turkey and the Basketball Champions League last season, made the big plays late for Greeks AEK as they bounced back from a Gameday 1 home defeat to Movistar Estudiantes.

Green finished with 24 points and was a crucial 9 of 11 at the free-throw line. AEK, who twice led by six in the overtime, were pegged back by a brilliant Dominique Johnson. He poured in 12 of his 20 points in the extra period, including a couple of 3-pointers and a pair of rim-rattling dunks.

The second of those slams with 8 seconds to play knotted the contest at 101-101, but AEK pushed the ball up the floor quickly and took the lead on a drive by Delroy James. That left just two seconds on the clock and the hosts nearly made the most of them.

Johnson, who made this 3-pointer, was almost the hero for Umana Reyer

They inbounded the ball Johnson, who threw up a three-quarters-of-the-length-of-the-court prayer that was almost answered. The ball reached the front of the rim and bounced up, yet stayed out, and AEK's bench poured onto the court to celebrate.

After winning their opening game last week in three overtimes against Banvit, Umana Reyer had a chance to win on Tuesday against AEK with just 0.9 seconds remaining. Gediminas Orelik grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled by Giannoulis Larentzakis with his team trailing by a point.

The Lithuanian, who was the hero of last week's victory, went to the line and missed the first free-throw by made the second to force the overtime.

Orelik finished with 25 points and Hrvoje Peric had 19. Dimitris Mavroeidis was tremendous for AEK with 18 points and 9 rebounds before fouling out.