AEK hold on for Play-In win in 100th BCL game

ATHENS (Greece) - Playing in their 100th game in the Basketball Champions League (second club to achieve this feat with Lenovo Tenerife), AEK came out on top with a 73-70 home win in Game 1 of their Play-In series against Tofas Bursa.

Turning point: Tofas got off to a good start with their shooting and led by four points after the first quarter, but AEK got out to a 9-1 start in the second quarter. Tofas quickly regained their composure and were able to take a 37-35 lead into halftime.

There was little separation between the two teams in the second half until Janis Strelnieks went on an 8-0 run by himself, pushing AEK out to a 69-62 lead. Tofas tried to fight back and after a turnover in the final seconds by AEK, Rob Gray got a shot to tie the game at the buzzer and send it to overtime, but it fell short.

Game heroes: Strelnieks came up clutch with his personal 8-0 run in the final quarter, helping shift the momentum to AEK for the rest of the game. The 33-year-old Latvian guard finished with 16 points, 5 assists and 2 steals on 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range and was tied for a game-high efficiency rating of 18.

Strelnieks' teammate Akil Mitchell also came up big in key situations. Like Strelnieks, Mitchell had an efficiency rating of 18 and recorded 16 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 3 assists on 50 percent shooting from the field.

Stats don't lie: AEK got to the free-throw line 26 times and converted 20 of them, while Tofas only attempted 16 and made 10. AEK also assisted on 21 of their 22 made shots from the field.

Bottom line: AEK have jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series and the Greek club will be going for the sweep in Game 2 on Tuesday January 10 where Tofas will be the hosts. The winner of this series will advance to the Round of 16 Group K.

Tofas were led in defeat by Rob Gray (18 points, 3-of-5 3P) and Berk Ugurlu (16 points, 3-of-4 3P) who combined to score 34 points and knock down six of the team's 10 made threes.

They said:

"It was definitely not the nicest game, but this is what happens in these kinds of games. The most important thing is that we won the game, so we now have to now rest a little bit. It will be even more difficult to play there, and we have to be ready." - Janis Strelnieks, AEK

"I believe at the end, we gave them the chance to come back in the game and this is something that should not be repeated because in close games like this, details matter double. Maybe next time, we won't be lucky with the three-point shot that they missed at the end." - Ilias Kantzouris, head coach AEK

"I think except the third quarter, we fought really well as a team. We couldn't start the third quarter very well and they played more aggressive. We need to play 40 minutes because we know that they are a tough team." - Berk Ugurlu, Tofas Bursa

"It was a really physical game, a lot of contact. We had periods where we didn't perform well, mostly offensively. Of course, we need to be more aggressive defensively and offensively to be stronger on the physical game. We hope to have a strong game in Bursa and come back here for the third game." - Dimitris Priftis, head coach Tofas Bursa