CRO - Cibona crush Zadar in finals decider to win 16th title

ZAGREB (A1 Liga) - Cibona Zagreb won their 16th Croatian league championship after beating KK Zadar 95-73 on Thursday, completing an impressive comeback in the Croatian league finals.

The reigning champions lost the first two games in the best-of-five series, but they won the next three to make league history, becoming the first team to recover from an 0-2 finals series deficit to win the championship.

And they won the decider in impressive fashion.

Bojan Bogdanovic scored 21 points and Marko Tomas added 18 for Cibona.

Zadar got off to a great start, taking a 21-14 lead on Trent Plaisted's dunk late in the first quarter.

However, Cibona then reeled off 15 unanswered points - as part of a 25-4 spurt that made it 39-24. Leon Radosevic and Vedran Vukusic had six points each in the run.

With that, the hosts regained the lead and did not trail the rest of the way.

The visitors did not panic and thanks to Hrvoje Peric and Miro Bilan, they cut the deficit and trailed 51-43 at the break.

Zadar closed the gap to 53-49 on a Rok Stipcevic three-pointer early in the second half, but Cibona clamped down on defense and held their opponents to just four points the rest of the third quarter, to take a commanding 73-53 advantage into the final frame.

The fourth quarter did not see any incredible comeback by Zadar. Peric led them with 17 points, while Stipcevic finished with 16 to go along with six assists.

Radosevic tallied 17 points for Cibona and Jamont Gordon displayed his versatility with 12 points, seven assists and four steals.

FIBA