Promitheas Edge Doxa Lefkadas 80-79 for Michelakos's First League Win

By Taki Panos

Sometimes the smartest shot in basketball is the one you miss on purpose. With about two seconds left in Lefkada on Saturday, Arnoldas Kulboka stepped to the line with a one-point lead, missed the first free throw and then deliberately missed the second so the clock would run out. It worked. Promitheas beat Doxa Lefkadas 80-79 in Round 3 of the Stoiximan Greek Basket League for their first league win of the season, as Gazzetta reported. It was messy, tense and a little controversial, and for a team that badly needed a result, it was perfect.

Some background for readers meeting this club for the first time. Promitheas are the basketball side of a Patras sports club founded in 1985, and they climbed from regional leagues to the top flight by 2016-17, later playing four EuroCup seasons and reaching the quarterfinals twice, according to Wikipedia. If you have never been, our Patras city overview is a good primer on Greece's big western port. The roster also includes forward Alex Antetokounmpo, the youngest brother of Giannis, Thanasis and Kostas, per the club's roster and Wikipedia.

The win carried extra weight because of what came before it. Promitheas parted ways with coach Giorgos Vovoras on October 12 after a heavy 84-59 home loss to Panathinaikos that followed a defeat by Peristeri, and assistant Michalis Michelakos took over on an interim basis, Filathlos and to10 reported. His first game in charge was the 87-83 FIBA Europe Cup loss to Trier we covered earlier this week. Saturday was his first Greek league game on the bench, and, per Sport24 and Pelop, his first top-division game as a head coach.

Doxa had their own story going. The Lefkada club is back in the top flight for only the second time in its history, after a single season in 2016-17 that ended in relegation, and it came up last season as Elite League champion; now, under coach Thodoris Terzis, it is trying to stay up, the Promitheas match preview noted. Saturday was their first home game in the top division in a decade, after opening losses at Kolossos in Rhodes and at PAOK, per the same preview. So this was an early must-win for two teams still looking for a first victory.

The hosts started like a team that had waited ten years for this night. Doxa hit three of their first five threes and led 22-15 after eight minutes, according to Gazzetta, and closed the first quarter up 25-17. Promitheas answered early in the second with a 9-2 run to edge ahead 28-27, Gazzetta reported, with New Williams carrying the offense, per Pelop. But Harmon and Arsenopoulos found answers for Doxa, who took a 45-40 lead into halftime, Pelop wrote.

The third quarter belonged to the visitors. Promitheas tightened up on defense and scored 27 points in the period to lead 67-63 after 30 minutes, Gazzetta and Totalbasket reported, with Kulboka and Kendal Coleman giving Williams some help, per Pelop. A 6-0 run to open the fourth stretched the lead to 73-63 in the 33rd minute, Gazzetta noted. At that point it looked like Michelakos would get a fairly calm first league win. Lefkada had other ideas.

Doxa ripped off an 11-0 run, according to Pelop. A Jones three made it 73-69, Arsenopoulos put the hosts back in front at 74-73 in the 37th minute, and after a Coleman basket, Robinson's work at the free-throw line had Doxa ahead 76-75 in the 39th, Gazzetta reported. Nikos Diplaros made one of two free throws to tie it at 76 with 50 seconds left, per Gazzetta. A ten-point cushion had vanished in about four minutes.

Then came the sequence everyone in Lefkada will be arguing about. After Harmon missed a three, Kulboka scored and was fouled with 11.1 seconds left, and the referees upgraded the foul to unsportsmanlike, so Promitheas made the extra free throw for 79-76 and kept the ball, Onsports and Gazzetta reported. Adonis Arms was fouled and made one of two for 80-76, a call the hosts protested, according to PaixeBala. Harmon hit a quick three with three seconds left to make it 80-79, per Totalbasket, before Kulboka's deliberate miss and a failed long heave from Hatzinikolas sealed it, PaixeBala and Eurohoops wrote.

The box score shows how the win was built. Williams led Promitheas with 22 points on 4 of 7 from three plus 7 assists, and Kulboka added 18 on 4 of 5 twos and 3 of 5 threes, Gazzetta and Sport24 reported. Coleman had 12 points and 9 rebounds, Jake Forrester added 10, and Diplaros shot just 1 of 8 but handed out 12 assists, per Eurohoops. For Doxa, Robinson had 14 points and 9 rebounds, Sharma 14 and Harmon 11 with 7 assists, Sport24 reported. Promitheas also won the boards 38-34, per Pelop.

The celebration said plenty about what this meant inside the team. Michelakos did not escape the locker room dry: his players drenched him with water during his postgame talk, a moment the club shared on Instagram, Sport24 reported. There was relief in that splash. Days earlier this group had lost by 25 at home and changed coaches, and now it has a road win to build on, even if it was nearly given back in the final minutes.

My take: this was a gritty win with a few warning lights still flashing. Promitheas made only 15 of 27 free throws, per Pelop and Sport24, and you cannot let a ten-point lead melt with seven minutes to play against anyone. Credit to Doxa, too, who played like a team that belongs and looked capable of winning at home this season. But early in a season, results change moods, and Michelakos now has a win, a smart late-game play to point to, and a locker room that clearly likes him.

Next up, Doxa host Iraklis in Lefkada on Saturday, October 24 at 17:00 Athens time, while Promitheas welcome Olympiacos to Patras on Sunday, October 25 at 13:00, per Sport24. Iraklis are coming off their own first league win, so Lefkada will get another hungry opponent. Promitheas move to 1-2 and Doxa drop to 0-3, Totalbasket and Eurohoops reported. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for the rest of Round 3. One win for Promitheas. Now comes Olympiacos.

Sources: Gazzetta, Sport24, Totalbasket, Pelop, Onsports, Eurohoops, PaixeBala, Filathlos, to10, Promitheas BC, Wikipedia.

Image: Flag of Greece, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).