Heavy defeat by Prometei in Riga (95-67) and elimination from the EuroCup quarter-finals for Aris.
A magical course came to an end on Wednesday night (6/3). Aris were defeated in Riga by Prometei (95-67) and eliminated from the quarter-finals of the EuroCup, with the Ukrainians qualifying to face Bourges in France in the round of eight.
Giannis Kastritis’ team, which had plenty of people in yet another away game, shot poorly from three-point range, had Vassilis Toliopoulos on a lukewarm night, made a lot of mistakes early on and from the moment they fell behind by double digits early on, didn’t he had the guts, depth and talent to claim the upset in Latvia.
Ronnie Harrell was the only one who stood out from Aris, who will not keep anything from this trip and from this match. Starc, Sanogo, Bloombergs, De Souza, Bankston all had a bad night and the negative assist/error ratio explains everything about the forty minutes.
Ronen Ginzburg’s Prometheus, on the other hand, played with impressive energy, efficiency and did not struggle at any point in the match. He went with an 8-9 man rotation, with Caleb Agada breaking out in the first period, Gian Clavell following and Ronald March, Ivan Tkachenko, Audrey Balvin complementing them.
Should they beat Bourg in France, Prometheus will face one of Hapoel Tel Aviv, Gran Canaria, Besiktas in a series that will be decided on two wins against the background of the final (also three wins) for EuroLeague qualification.
THE REFEREES: Garcia, Ballack, Obrknezevic
THE DECADES: 27-17, 51-32, 74-50, 95-67
PROMETEI (Ginsburg): Aganda 16 (4/7 2-pointers, 1/2 3-pointers, 5/7 shots, 4 assists), Clavel 16 (1/2 2-pointers, 3/6 3-pointers, 5/5 shots, 3 assists), March 15 (3/5 2-pointers, 3/5 3-pointers, 4 rebounds, 7 assists), Tkachenko 16 (3/4 2-pointers, 2/3 3-pointers, 4/4 shots), Lukasov 2, Bobrov, Lipovy, Balvin 12 (4/ 5 2-pointers, 4/5 shots, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks), Kennedy 6 (3/5 2-pointers, 6 rebounds), Odiaze 7 (3/6 2-pointers), Shannon 5 (1)
ARIS (Kastritis): Slaftsakis, Stark 4 (2/5 shots), Sanogo 6 (0/5 two-pointers, 2/2 three-pointers), Toliopoulos 13 (5/9 two-pointers, 1/7 three-pointers, 4 rebounds, 5 assists), Katsivelis 3, Bloombergs 5 (1/5 shots, 3/6 shots), Bohorides 5 (1/5 three-pointers, 5 rebounds), Persedis, De Souza 5, Harrell 20 (7/7 two-pointers, 1/6 three-pointers, 3/ 5 shots, 7 rebounds, 4 steals), Kalogiros, Bankston 6
Prometei’s team stats: 21/36 2-pointers, 10/20 shots, 23/28 shots, 33 rebounds (25 defensive – 8 offensive), 21 assists, 9 steals, 6 blocks, 15 turnovers, 19 fouls
Aris’ team stats: 22/37 2-pointers, 5/25 3-pointers, 8/14 shots, 29 rebounds (19 defensive – 10 offensive), 12 assists, 9 steals, 4 blocks, 19 turnovers, 26 fouls