ADRIATIC League - Adriatic League review

Zadar celebrate after OT triumph at Zadar

ZADAR (Adriatic League) – Adriatic League leaders Cibona Zagreb are “breathing easier” following a vital 92-87 overtime win at rivals Zadar in the 19th round.

Cibona, narrowly defeated last week at Hemofarm, bounced back with a gritty performance that has left them two games clear at the top of the standings.

They are closing in on a place in the Final Four while the loss for Zadar was costly, a near fatal hit in their attempt to also play for the title by season’s end.

“I’m happy about the victory that has brought us closer to the Final Four, which is our final goal,” said Cibona coach Velimir Perasovic.

“Hemofarm defeated us, shook us up a lot, and we knew if we lost at Zadar that we would have a fight to the last round. Now we have a slightly easier situation that allows us to breathe easier. But we have a lot of hard games coming up at home."

Slovenia’s Samo Udrih joined Cibona in mid-season and he excelled in his fourth Adriatic League game with the club.

The guard hit a game-tying lay-up in the final minute and after Zadar’s Damir Rancic misfired from long range in the last seconds, the game went to overtime.

With the game knotted at 84-84 heading into the extra session, Cibona made the big plays.

After the teams traded baskets, Croatia international Marko Tomas buried a three-pointer to make it 89-86 in favour of the visitors.

Udrih then added three free-throws in the last minute to take his points haul to 16 and seal the victory.

The setback dropped Zadar to 10-9. They trail Hemofarm, Olimpia Ljubljana and Buducnost (all 12-7) with time running out in the regular season.

“Before the start, I said that the game would be decided by a turnover or a jump, and so it was,” said Zadar coach Daniel Jusup.

"Cibona was better, and we had 18 turnovers."

Indeed, Cibona only turned the ball over 10 times.

Lorbek, Helios shock Hemofarm

Another Slovenia national team member was named Player of the Week in the Adriatic League.

Domen Lorbek led Helios to a 76-75 victory at Hemofarm with a very impressive display, hitting six of eight three-point attempts on his way to a game-high 32 points.

This was a game that Hemofarm should have won.

With the game tied at 75-75 after two Lorbek free-throws, Hemofarm’s Stefan Markovic was fouled but missed his own pair from the charity stripe.

After Alvin Snow made one of two foul shots to put Helios on top in the waning moments, the Slovenian side fouled Bojan Krstovic and the 74.1% shooter from the line this season missed both attempts.

Serbia international point guard Markovic grabbed the rebound but missed a potential game-winning lay-up as time expired.

Helios are attempting to avoid a last-place finish and this result is going to help their fight.

Helios head coach Rado Trifunovic said: “I think we deserved to win. We had problems in the first six, seven minutes of the game when we managed to control the game well. We've raised the level, especially on offense but also in defense.

"We may have had some luck at the end when the Hemofarm players missed free throws but our victory was fully deserved.”

Lorbek was a scintillating 10 of 11 (91%) at the free-throw line.

Meanwhile, Bosna's game against Partizan Belgrade was postponed.

If Partizan were to win that contest, they would be one game behind Cibona.

Other results: Union Olimpija 95 FMP 54, Zagreb 87 Radnički 80, Red Star Belgrade 83 Cedevita Zagreb 63, Buducnost 77 Siroki 57.



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