L’Hospitalet finishes tourney on winning note

Host U18 Torrons Vicens L’Hospitalet came back from a 14-point deficit to grab seventh place at the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Ciutat de L’Hospitalet by beating U18 Promitheas Patras 92-85 for its first victory of the tournament. Adrian Rodriguez collected 21 points, 8 assists and 5 steals for L’Hospitalet while Gerard Sola scored 19 points and Alex Navas 18. Promitheas, which was making its first appearance in the ANGT competition, finished eighth. Chrysostomos Sandramanis led the way with 26 points and Dimitrios Ermeidis picked up 15 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in defeat.

The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair with David Mejia scoring 4 points as L’Hospitalet jumped ahead 7-4. Promitheas took its first lead on free throws from Ermeidis that made it 9-10. The lead switched hands eight more times in the quarter and Promitheas was up 22-26 after the first 10 minutes, which had nine lead changes and six ties. Promitheas pulled away in the second quarter as Sandramanis and Angelos Grammatikos combined for 12 points in a 4-14 run to go ahead 26-40. But Rodriguez and Sola combined for 10 points as L’Hospitalet closed the first half with a 15-7 surge and trailed 41-47 at intermission. L’Hospitalet pulled to within 48-49, but Promitheas responded with the next 6 points. It was a 1-point game twice more in the quarter, but Promitheas led 62-66 after 30 minutes. L’Hospitalet completed the comeback and took the lead 79-75 on back-to-back three-pointers from Navas. Promitheas tied it at 79-79, but Navas and Gerard Enfedaque both hit threes down the stretch and Rodriguez made 2 free throws with 7.9 seconds to ice the game.