Prometheus went down fighting to the final and said goodbye to the BCL with his head held high

End of his excellent course Prometheus in this year’s Basketball Champions League entered Tuesday night, with the Patrinos falling heroically to the powerful Unicaja Malaga, losing by a score of 90-83 to “Dimitris Tofalos” in Game 2 of the quarterfinal series.

Ilias Papatheodorou’s team looked into the… eyes of the Andalusians for about 25 minutes, playing equal to their opponents. However, a “dead time” by the hosts in the last five minutes of the 3rd period was enough for the Spaniards to build a double-digit difference and get the pink card they needed (2-0 series), celebrating the qualification to the Final 4 of the event which will be held in Belgrade.

Exciting performance by Hunter Hale who with 31 points – 15 of which came in the final period – struggled to single-handedly turn it around from -17 for Prometheus in the final period. A worthy supporter of the explosive guard was Etsenikewith the Colombian center finishing the match with 16 points.

For the Spaniards, the former player of Apollon Patras stood out, Tyler Kalinoski with 23 points and 5/10 three-pointers.

The match:

Willing to play “dog” defense and suffocate its circulation Unicaja Malaga, entered the park o Prometheus. In the first minutes of the match, the Spaniards found more offensive solutions and led 9-4 and a little later with 11-7 in the 5th minute. Somewhere there, Patrina’s defense bore fruit, as a result of which easy baskets came out in the surprise! By Hale in a terrible situation (9 points 2 assists in the quarter), the home team ran a impressive 10-0 streak for 17-11 in 7′! In fact, the offensive crescendo of Hale and Etzenike continued for +9 (26-17), before the Andalusians took advantage of their offensive rebounds and reduced at 26-23 of the period.

The scene was different at the beginning ofof the second period, with both teams showing a nervousness in their game with missed shots and several mistakes. For Prometheus, it continued to be a wound too many missed defensive rebounds, which were converted into easy points by Unikaha, who gradually got the upper hand in the score for 35-32 at 15′. The entry of Etsenike and Hale gave an aggressive “breath” to the Patrinos, who had blocked in this part. Especially the Colombian center, dominated the racquets and with consecutive baskets kept his team close to the score, at the time when Malaga seemed to find a rhythm. A big 3-pointer by Cowan cut the deficit to 44-43 before Perry’s late layup layup the 46-43 of the half.

The derby continued in third period, where the Greek team continued to play in… red in defense, with constant traps in all lengths and widths of the floor. With the “weapon” of the energy that was coming out as well as the unstoppable Etsenike-Hale, the Patrinos went ahead after a long time for 54-53 in the 25th minute. But somewhere there, the pioneer of ACB, rose “awakened” and with the Kalinoski-Kravis duo ran a unanswered 12 point streak, going for the first time at +11 (54-65) at 29′. Prometheus had clearly lost his sanity. It is indicative that he did not find a score in the last 5:19 minutes of the period, a period in which he had five errors. Somehow, and probably unexpectedly, the Spanish closed the period at +11 and 65-54.

With the contrast of emotions and psychology to be clear, Unicaja Malaga shot the difference even at +15 (55-70) early in the fourth and final period when Prometheus hit his first field goal with Cowan after 7.5 racing minutes! The Spaniards then got to +17 (61-78), before the home team counter-attacked with 15 points by Hale in the period (!), reduce by as many as 6 (78-84) at 1:34′ before the final. In the end, Málaga won and qualified for the Final 4 with the final 90-83.

The quarters: 26-23, 43-46, 54-65, 83-90.

See here the statistics of the match.