Buducnost VOLI Podgorica survived a fourth-quarter rally from visiting Promitheas Patras to earn a 95-89 victory at Moraca on Tuesday night.
Buducnost steps up in overtime to down Promitheas



Phil Booth sent the game to overtime with a layup and then followed that up with 6 points during an 8-1 run to start the extra period. Booth led Buducnost's scorers with 18 points, with Trae Bell-Haynes contributing 16. Alpha Kaba provided a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double, and Cameron Reynolds chipped in 10 points for the winners. Joe Young set the tone for Promitheas with 20 points, while Anthony Cowan, Nikolaos Gkikas, Arnoldas Kulboka and Dimitrios Kaklamanakis added 15, 11, 11 and 10 points, respectively.
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Both teams were scoring at a fairly rapid pace early in the game. The hosts found Kaba and Bell-Haynes to build a 16-11 edge, but Promitheas didn’t look back and reached the end of the first quarter trailing 26-23, with Kaklamanakis and Young showing what they are capable of on offense. Even though Gkikas tied it up from downtown right after the game resumed, the hosts took advantage of Promitheas's turnovers to storm a 22-5 run and escape with a 17-point lead, 48-31. A couple of good plays by Petar Popovic set a 20-point margin, 67-47, late in the third period, which seemed to be the last blow for the guests. The scenario radically changed in the last period, however, as Young and Anthony Cowan combined to reduce the margin to single digits, 73-65, with 4 minutes remaining. Then Gkikas capped a 1-11 run with a triple to tighten things even more, 74-71, which led to some panic in the Buducnost camp. Cameron Reynolds came to the rescue with a three-pointer, but Cowan and Gkikas nailed back-to-back triples right after to complete the comeback, 77-79, with 00:37 to go in the fourth quarter. Kaba and Young then swapped baskets right before Booth scored a coast-to-coast layup and Aleksandar Lazic blocked Michalis Tsairelis to send the game to overtime.
Booth remained red-hot in the extra period, as he showed up with back-to-back buckets that Kaba complemented with a pair of free throws to build an 87-81 edge. Promitheas tried to cut the deficit from the three-point line, but they missed 5 attempts in a row from downtown to energize Buducnost’s mood. Booth drained 2 more free throws after that, with Bell-Haynes and Popovic both scoring two-pointers to put the game to bed at 95-82 with just over half a minute remaining.