Mornar upset Buducnost en route to historic triumph in Montenegro
BAR (Montenegrin Basketball League) - After a fabulous international campaign in the FIBA Europe Cup, Mornar Bar the unthinkable on the home front and dethroned perennial Montenegrin champions Buducnost.
BAR (Montenegrin Basketball League) - After a fabulous international campaign in the FIBA Europe Cup, Mornar Bar did the unthinkable on the home front and dethroned perennial Montenegrin champions Buducnost Podgorica.
The giant-slayers from Bar conquered their maiden national title by shocking the heavily-favored ABA League winners in the gold-medal series, ending their 11-year reign in the Montenegrin Basketball League.
Having been one shot away from sealing the deal on the road in Podgorica a couple of days previous, the Mihailo Pavicevic-coached Mornar side secured a 3-1 triumph with a 75-62 victory at the Topolica Sports Hall on Thursday.
Congratulations to @MornarBar for winning the Montenegrin National Championship trophy - their first ever in club's history! pic.twitter.com/cuyajHN832
— ABA Liga (@ABA_League) May 31, 2018
Strahinja Micovic paced the winners with a game-high 18 points, while the team's offensive engine Derek Needham provided a modest 14-point contribution after combining for 75 points in the last two games of the series.
"This is a great success and all the merits of the victory belong to the players. As a coach, I was there just to help," said head coach Mihailo Pavicevic, who has been running the show in Bar with his brother Djordjije for nearly three decades.
"The title belongs to my brother Djordjije. This is his project. He dreamt of a title and this dream has now become a reality."
On the opposite end of the floor, Nikola Ivanovic and Kyle Gibson netted 16 and 14 points, respectively for Buducnost, who lost possession of the title for the first time since the competition was set up.
The Podgorica club found themselves on the wrong side of an upset just a couple of months after their own sensational triumph over Crvena Zvezda in the ABA League title duel.
Having appeared in the Finals of the Montenegrin Basketball League on three different occasions in the past, Mornar finally managed to swing the balance of power in their favor for once.
It was the first-ever title of any sorts for the Bar club, who also enjoyed a strong run in the FIBA Europe Cup this season, reaching the Quarter-Finals before being eliminated by Donar Groningen.
FIBA