Promitheas overpowers Bourg to advance to quarterfinals
Promitheas Patras secured an 89-75 victory over Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse on Wednesday night at Dimitris Tofalos Arena to seal a spot in the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals. The hosts were superior from start to finish and managed to hold a comfortable lead whenever the visitors tried to fight back. Promitheas will play away Prometey Slobozhanske on the road in next week’s quarterfinals.
Anthony Cowan paired his 20 points with 10 assists to lead the winners. Arnoldas Kulboka also recorded 20 points. Joe Thomasson added 13 points and George Conditt had 12. For Bourg, Jordan Floyd scored 16 points, Isiaha Mike registered 13 and Pierre Pelos had a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The two teams got off to a slow start, missing a couple of three-pointers each before Dustin Hogue netted 5 quick points and Vassilis Mouratos added 3 for an 8-3 Promitheas lead. Bourg had no field goal in the first 3 minutes, with all its points coming from the free-throw line. James Palmer scored the visitors' first field goal on a fast break, but Thomasson sank the hosts’ first three-pointer and Hogue took his tally to 6 points, as Promitheas went 14-5 up. Nikos Gkikas came off the bench to set up Nemanja Dangubic and scored a layup to stretch the lead to double digits, 24-13.
What followed was a nervy second quarter, as the two teams recorded a combined 10 turnovers in 4 minutes. As a result, Bourg scored just 3 points in 5 minutes and Promitheas managed its first points in the second quarter from the free-throw line through Hogue for a 26-16 lead with 5:20 to play. Kulboka opened his account with 8 back-to-back points and Cowan scored his first points 8 minutes into the second quarter to boost Promitheas's lead to 37-26. Bourg went on a 0-5 run in the closing stages to get within 41-33 before the break.
Game Videos
The visitors hit the ground running in the second half, with Floyd scoring 7 back-to-back points to reduce the deficit to 44-40. Promitheas stars Cowan and Kulboka responded, with the latter taking his tally to 16 points, 53-40. Axel Julien and Maxime Courby sank a three-pointer each to bring Bourg within 58-55, but Cowan scored a much-needed triple from the corner as Promitheas headed into the last quarter with a 61-55 lead.
Thomasson and Dangubic pushed their team's lead back to double digits, but Pelos scored 6 straight points and Floyd sank 3 free throws to trim the deficit to 78-71. Cowan stepped up again when Promitheas needed him most and scored his fifth three-pointer of the game for an 81-71 lead to deal Bourg a hard blow. Then Conditt rejected Floyd on one end and scored a put-back-and-one on the other end to practically put the game to bed and seal the victory for the hosts.