The French side outscored the visitors 34-13 to enter the fourth quarter with a 79-57 lead
Memorable third-quarter run proved key as Bourg beat Prometey
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There was just one point separating Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse and Prometey Slobozhanske at halftime of their contest in the BKT EuroCup Quarterfinals on Tuesday night, with the hosts 45-44 ahead. Yet, by the time the third quarter had come to a close, Bourg led by 22 points, 79-57, and had one foot in the semifinals.
In fact, Bourg enjoyed its best-ever third-quarter performance in the EuroCup by outscoring Prometey 34-13 in that period alone, beating its 16-point margin in a 75-88 win at Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana in Round 18 of the 2022-23 regular season.
A third quarter to remember
Jeremy Morgan, who was excellent on the night with a joint team-high 17 points, got Bourg rolling after the break with a three-pointer to move to 13 points and thus set a 48-44 score in the process. A player who went on to have a huge second half, Kevin Kokila, soon got his first points of the night by going 2-for-2 from the free-throw line, 50-44. There was an unsportsmanlike foul called on Prometey’s Caleb Agada after JeQuan Lewis’s in-your-face defense led to him stealing the ball and starting an attack, only for Agada to bring him down. That resulted in a couple of free-throw makes by Lewis, 52-44.
It was the perfect start to the second half by Bourg, which looked ready for the moment and was being cheered on by its passionate fans inside Ekinox. Although Prometey hit back with a 5-0 run of its own, with Ondrej Balvin scoring a jumper and Ronald March completing a three-point play, to set a 52-49 score, that only seemed to anger Bourg.
Frederic Fauthoux saw his team go on a 27-8 run in the remaining 7:22 minutes of the third period, which saw it take a 79-57 lead into the fourth quarter. There were a few players who particularly stood out in that run, but the two-way play of Lewis and Kokila proved vital in helping Bourg pull away. Then, when Bryce Brown knocked down a three-pointer from the car park to open a 20-point lead, 75-55, for the first time, it seemed like the game was all but done.
There was a late fightback by Prometey in the final frame, but it was too little, too late. In the end, that third-quarter run by Bourg was the difference in its 95-82 win – and it’s a main reason why it can look forward to a best-of-three matchup with either Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv or Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul in the EuroCup Semifinals.