Promitheas has to defend their home-court advantage vs. Umana Venezia

It’s getting hotter in Eurocup, as the rounds pass and the teams need to get the wins, especially on the home court if they want to go further in the competition. In Group F, Promitheas will meet Umana Venezia in a very promising duel. The Greek team needs to defend their home soil, but are they capable? Let’s see what the spirit in both camps is.

Promitheas has lost the first game in this Group against another Italian team, Brescia, but they recovered in time and then secured a nice win over Oldenburg at home 81-70. They played very well defensively, while their opponents made a lot of personal fouls which gave Promitheas the chance to score 18 points only from the free-throw line. After that game, the next team that came to Patras was the Euroleague power, Panathinaikos. Promitheas eliminated them earlier this season from the Greek Cup, but this game was without history because PAO won it with 99-76 showing a great basketball from start to finish. The shots from distance simply killed the home team, recording only 7 out of 34 attempts while their 10 steals were the only positive aspect of the game. The main contributors for Promitheas were: Oleksandr Lypovyy (18 points and 3 rebounds), Octavius Ellis (10 points and 4 rebounds) and Vangelis Mantzaris (8 points and 8 assists). Chris Babb and Lukas Mavrokefalidis had 1-14 from distance combined, a stats that won’t help in the next duel against Venezia either.

Venezia has won last 3 games in a row, which give them a lot of confidence before this clash from Greece. Like their opponents, they lost the first game in Eurocup, against Oldenburg 98-87, despite a nice offensive display, but next, they beat their Italian counterparts 68-60 for their first win in Group F. After that game, they received the visit of Fortitudo Bologna, in another interesting match from Italian basketball. Venezia took the early control of the game and despite several ties and lead changes; in the final, they took a nice victory 80-70 especially thanks to their shots from distance.  On the other hand of the floor, they played also very well, forcing Bologna to make 15 turnovers and blocked 7 shots. The main contributors were: Mitchell Watt (19 points and 4 rebounds), Ariel Filloy (16 points) and Michael Bramos (14 points and 3 assists).

This game will be balanced and very tough for both teams. The home team wants the win, to protect their yard, while the visitors will do everything to get a nice result a secure a win away from home, which will be very important when all the games will be played. As a prediction, I expect a win for Promitheas, because they played very well at home this year, losing only 4 from 15 games.

Photo: Eurocup

Bogdan Vasile Tirc

 

Loading...