Great finish puts Decin in good position
BK ARMEX Decin vs. BK Opava
85:67 (21:24, 37:38, 57:55)
Referees: Kec J., Perlík M., Musil J.
Audience: 867
Venue: ARMEX Sportcentrum
Scorers BK ARMEX Decin: Siska 17, Autrey 16, Vukosavljevic 15, Kroutil 12, Jezek 8, Carlson 6, Zikla 5, Taylor 4, Festr 2, Bobek and Mach and Skalicka
Scorers BK Opava: Bukovjan 17, Slavik 8, Dragoun a Jurecka 7, Kurecka 6, Bujnoch and Klecka and Stepanek and Sirina 5, Svandrlik 2
Opava played second game in two days as they had a home league Sunday game in Usti, where they lost another important player Zbranek (Gniadek, Kvapil and Bratcenkov were already missing). Decin is missing two big guys (Landa and Grunt) and also their leader Pomikalek was out because of injury.
Home team openned a game score, but it was hosts who was leading almost whole first quatre as the team who was running the floor better was up in some parts. Fast breaks were important weapon for both and Opava finished with 3-point leadership 21:24.
The game was very close in second part as Decin wasn’t able to use big minutes for Opava younger players, who were fighting and playing encouraged in nice atmosphere. Opava was using tough plays to get offensive rebounds which was big weapon for them as they had 10 more shots than home team in the half – 37:38.
Siska started to lead Decin in first minutes of second half and his power drives were hardly stopped by Opava defenders as he scored and got fouls very often. Also creating good positions for his teammates started to work better and Decin took 47:40 lead. But still Opava was in the game fighting for every posession and for every rebound very hard – 57:55.
In last quatre Decin showed more energy, kept on running to fast breaks and pushed Opava to even bigger tempo. Also Decin players started to box-out Opava offenders better and protected rebounds to be able to fast run to offense. Finally Decin won last quatre 28:12 and took an importart leadership in “halftime” of this quatrefinals serie – 85:67.
Petr Czudek, head coach of Opava:“I think that today we played good three quatres, young players showed good fight, of course there were mistakes, but big intensity, 18 offensive rebounds, 10 turnovers is good, Lukas Bukovjan took his leader role, also big minutes for Jakub Slavik. We wanted our young guys they have to fight for they minutes and that is what they did. Final score is like it is, but I have good feeling from it.”
Jakub Slavik, player of Opava:“We as young players received a lot of minutes tonight, which is good for us. Our older players played tough game yesterday and also we expect another two games against Decin in Opava (league and AAC), so we saved some energy. Eventhough the final score is by 18 points, I think we played solid game.”
Tomas Grepl, head coach of Decin:“We are very happy for the win against Opava, eventhough they were missing some players, so we were. We did not play well in first half, we were not enough focused and Opava had too many open shots, luckily they did not make them. If they were in full strength, they would have scored more points. We got better in second half and finally we have 18 points win. A pity is the end of the game, where we made many mistakes and let Opava reduce our leadership. Let’s see if this lead will be enough. We will make everything to get to another round because we want another good quality games.”
Lamb Autrey, player of Decin:“Very important game. We took this week as a preparation for the play-offs. Opava was missing 4 players from rotation, but we knew we have to bring our best, because next two games are on road. We built some confidence before next games as we play Wednesday the league and Thursday AAC in Opava. As I said for us it is good preparation for the league play-off series.”