SCM winsed.swiss Mozzart Bet Timisoara – MKS Dabrowa Górnicza 88:90 (21:22, 21:24, 20:20, 26:24)
Referees: Špendl, Krajnć, Momorić (all Slovenia)
Attendance: 250
Scorers – Timisoara: Kesar 24, Mitrović 23, Gajić 14, Mirković 11, Scott-Grayson 8, Lazar 6, Petrescu 2, Simmons and Schipor 0
Scorers – Dabrowa Górnicza: Cabbill a Carvacho each 18, Garcia 15, Williams 14, Persons 9, Wilczek 8, Kulikowski and Slupinski ach 3, Kucharek 2, Piechowicz 0
The climax of the Final Four in Kapfenberg brought a continuation of quality basketball from the first minute. Timisoara quickly gained confidence, which translated into scoring as Grayson put on a great shooting show and followed up his winning shot from the semi-final. Dabrowa Górnicza was helped by a time out, after which she was back in the game virtually immediately. But the Romanian team was better in the game and held a slight lead, helped by three-point shooting. The reigning champion struggled in this statistic, but eventually won the first quarter 22:21 with 6 points in a row. The Poles started to dictate the pace of the duel, opening the second period with 8 points in a row, and Garcia pulled Dabrowa to defend. Timisoara was able to assert itself after 4 minutes, but this momentum kicked in and brought them back into the game. The players exchanged great individual moments, with Gornicza winning 46:42 over Timisoara after the first half.
After the break, the final duel continued, it was not at all clear who would be able to lift the winning trophy above his head. Timisoara again helped itself with a point streak, which managed to level the duel. The team from Poland still held the upper hand, not letting the unfavourable development of the match turn and scoring when they needed to. That’s why before the last quarter they won 66:62. Timisoara did not give up hope for the final victory, but it was not the same from their side. For the Poles, Carvacho and Cabill commanded the defense of the championship. However, Timisoara showed a great will to succeed, Mitrović was able to bring the team back into the game. With 107 seconds to go, the score was tied 83:83. Again, the very end was the decider, first Lazar stepped in for Mitrović, who missed his shot and adjusted to 88:87. But Garcia then showed nerves of iron and made a free throw with 4 seconds left to tie the game 88:88. Persons took it into his own hands for the deciding action, essentially securing the AAC defense for Dabrowa Górnicza and Final Four MVP honors for himself with the buzzer beater.
Post-game quotes:
Dragan Petričević, coach of Timisoara: „Congratulations to Dabrowa Górnicza. I am proud of my team. It is hard for me to find more words now.“
Boris Balibrea, coach of Dabrowa Górnicza: „It’s an amazing feeling to be back-to-back champions. I’m very proud of these guys, the whole club, the owners and also the organization. Everybody worked hard for this success. It hasn’t been an easy road, but we made it. We didn’t play our best game in the finals, but we still managed to win. This success also belongs to the fans.“
