SLO - Helios Domzale win national title

DOMZALE (UPC Telemach league) - It virtually took Helios Domzale 25 minutes to secure the 82-65 victory in Game 5 of the Slovenian play-off final series. After leading by eight at half-time, Helios scored 11 in a row to seal the deal against ill-fated Union Olimpija.

Helios led through the entire match, from Sasa Doncic's opening point from the charity stripe until the final buzzer. Following Helios' 6-0 opening run Olimpija never trailed by less than three points.

Domzale's coach Memi Becirovic commanded his men to press on the opponents from the tip-off. The tactic was to tire Olimpija's seven men in order to neutralize them.

Robert Troha gave Domzale the first major lead with a triple six minutes into the first quarter. With 18-9 on the scoreboard, this was Troha's third hit from downtown.

Olimpija cut the distance to 20-17 with a triple by Slavko Duscak. After Becirovic's time-out Aljaz Janza scored another 3-pointer to seal the score of the first period at 23-17.

Domzale, coached by star guard Sani Becirovic's father Memi, rotated nine men to keep a high pace in the first half. The opponents rotated (all) seven players (available), not without trouble: American point guard Dwayne Lee suffered a minor injury that kept him out for most of the second period and veteran forward Ivica Jurkovic could not play in the second half due to back pain.

Sandi Cebular scored 12 points in the first half to keep Olimpija alive; another fine performance by the soon-to-be 21-year old that had 20 points in Game 4 on Wednesday. Teams hit the lockers at half-time with Helios leading by eight (45-37).

Helios Domzale then scored 11 in a row in the opening four minutes of the third period. The scoreboard showing 56-37 marked the beginning of the end for Union Olimpija.

The former champions could not get closer than 15 points and Helios even controlled a 22-point lead in the last period. The final score was 82-65 for Helios, who also secured the best-of-five final series.

Smiljan Pavic was Domzale's top scorer with 15 points and 7 rebounds while Slavko Duscak had 21 points for Olimpija.

Pavic was arguably the best player in this final series. He averaged 14.6 points and 9 rebounds per game with remarkably consistent performances. He had valuable assistants in fellow center Aleksej Lashkevich (averaged 10 points and 6.4 rebounds), sharp-shooter Ziga Zagorc (13.2 points) and seasoned swingman Sasa Doncic (8.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per game with 7 three-pointers in 5 matches).

Home court advantage again proved to be vital in the final series as neither team lost on home grounds. Such feature was already seen the last two finals. Both times Union Olimpija faced Geoplin Slovan - and won.

Helios Domzale now becomes the fist team after Olimpija to win the championship and the Slovenian Cup in the same season.

Olimpija's players' performances were rather unstable. American point-guard Dwayne Lee averaged over 14 points in the first four matches but went missing-in-action in the clutch. Ivica Jurkovic scored 29 points in Game 2 and combined 22 in the remaining four matches. Miha Zupan did rather well, though, averaging 11 points and 7.4 rebound in the series after being sidelined for most of the season.

It should not be forgotten Union Olimpija's injury list looked more like a novel. Saso Ozbolt has been sidelined since the beginning of the season; starting guards Teemu Rannikko and Manuchar Markoishvili suffered injuries in the play-offs and did not play in the final series; Domen Lorbek renewed his foot injury after Game 3 and had to watch from the bench the remaining games.

Extensive is also the list of players who parted with Olimpija during the season: centers Christian Maraker, Saulius Kuzminskas and Hasan Rizvic, forward Marko Milic, and guards Ender Arslan and Abdul Mills cleared their lockers earlier this season.

With the curtain falling on the 2006/07 UPC Telemach campaign, the national teams' stage is setting for summer work. The first will be the U-20 male team competing in the European championship on home grounds. Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and Gorizia (Italy) will host the championship between 6th and 15th July. The event will be covered on www.fiba.basketball as well.
Simon Licen
FIBA