THESSALONIKI (Basketball Champions League) - PAOK defended home court to open their Round of 16 encounter against Pinar Karsiyaka with a 74-68 victory on Tuesday.

The home side took control after the half-time break and led by as many as 19 points in the contest before a resilient finish from Pinar Karsiyaka sees them head back to Turkey trailing by 6.

Phil Goss handed out 6 assists to go with 13 points in the win with Darnell Jackson also scoring 13 points for the victors.

PAOK also came up with an impressive 8 blocks as they protected the paint in style with Linos Chrysikopoulos leading the way with 3 rejections.

"I want to give thanks to Karsiyaka - they are a very good team and have a lot of great players," said Lucky Jones post-game.

"But we came out with a goal and a task - the coaching staff put a great plan together and we came out and executed. We played as hard as we could as long as we could and came out with the win.

"We have to try to do a better job of focusing in those last 4 minutes - it happens sometimes in practice.

"Knowing a team like this and knowing we have to go to Turkey and compete again - we have to know that the last 4 minutes is the most crucial no matter what happens."

Pinar Karsiyaka were the joint-leading scorers during the Regular Season with 85.1 points per game, but struggled to find their range with 2 of 11 shooting from 3-point range as they finished at 35% overall from the floor.

Having been held to just 7 points in the third period the visitors rallied late in the contest with an 18-5 close in the final three minutes including Jarrod Jones' trey with 11 seconds remaining.