By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Vassilis Spanoulis witnessed a career-high showing delivered by his former Olympiacos teammate Vassilis Toliopoulos but was the winning head coach in the Basket League Regular Season Round 6 nail-biter between Peristeri bwin and Aris.
The team coached by Spanoulis secured the narrow win, 92-90, Saturday. Miro Bilan’s putback with 1.4 seconds on the clock ultimately separated the two teams in the tight affair. The Croatian center ended up with 13 points, five rebounds, two assists, and one block.
Despite the loss, Toliopoulos was the top performer overall. He poured a career-high 38 points leading the charge as the team based in Thessaloniki dug its way out of an early 10-point hole. Tucking in 9/15 three-pointers was the major highlight of the breakout outing. Netting 13/21 field goals plus five rebounds, four steals, and three assists were not enough to avoid the drop to 3-3 in the Greek league. Peristeri jumped to 4-2.
Toliopoulos, 26, joined Aris for a second stint in July. The first spell immediately followed the lengthy run at Olympiacos in the bottom half of the 2018-19 season. Over the next three seasons, he moved his talents to AEK, Ionikos, and PAOK. Prior to joining the Reds on a four-year contract in 2015, he played for Ikaros and Kolossos H Hotels in the top-flight division of Greece.
A regular across all junior national teams of Greece, he upgraded his international career to the senior level appearing in one game of the 2022 EuroBasket Qualifiers during the 2020-21 season.