BK ARMEX Děčín – Inter Bratislava 80:79 (27:22, 17:20, 19:17, 17:20)
Scorers – Děčín: Pomikálek 18, Svoboda 16, Šiška 15, Nichols 13, Kroutil 10, Mach and Osaikhwuwuomwan each 4, Bobek, Prahl and Žikla 0
Scorers – Inter: Blondin 28, Gandia-Rosa and Zubac each 21, T. Malovec 9, Borodovčák, Boros, D. Koller, M. Koller, Orihel a Randuška 0
Inter came to Děčín without two experienced players who are injured. Despite this, played very close game from the very start. Anyhow, home team put a little more energy to first quarter as after ten points scoring run Czechs went up by six on 25:19. The last two baskets finished the score on 27:22. Kroutil made both free throws to open second quarter, but Inter played smart defense and patient experienced offense as there were only three foreign guys scoring for long minutes, when finally young Malovec joined them and gave the lead to Bratislava on 31:32. Děčín’s captain didn’t put back the lead from home team with AND1 in last seconds of first half to make it 44:42.
It was Zubac making it a tie again, but the game kept being very closed. On Inter’s side, Jure Zubac, Trevor Blondin and Ivan Gandia-Rosa were leaders and remained main scorers during whole game while on double figures already in first half. Again, home captain Pomikálek closed the score after 30 minutes, played still very close on 63:59. The home team was precious from the free throw line, even tough that Inter was there much more often. On the other side, Bratislava had better three points shooting percentage. Inter went to lead 65:69 in 34th minute, but then Děčín managed to get leadership on Czech side with 12:0 run. In the end, there was a game for mutual score difference. But Děčín missed two shots and Inter punished it hardly on the other side. Pomikálek gave a win with last three and Gandia-Rosa closed the game with buzzer on final 80:79.
Post-game quotes:
Tomas Grepl, coach of Děčín: „For me, important is a win, not our point difference, because every win helps. Inter has a very young team, but they overplayed us in aggressively and discipline too. It is good team with great foreigners and well coached – Oleg used to be great player and is great coach who can prepare his team. Now we have to prepare for Pardubice game on Saturday.“
Tomas Pomikálek, player of Děčín: „In the end of the game we knew about point difference, but we received some tough shots. It is a pity, that we didn’t manage to run more and get our opponent tired, because they played in few players. We also received too many AND1s and gave them too many second chances.“
Oleg Meleshchenko, coach of Inter: „Congrats to home team for a good win. We came with a thinner roster here, but it has nothing to do with Děčín. We were fighting, but we made many own mistakes it wasn’t our young players‘ best day. We are missing better decisions in key moments. It’s a big international school for us, we will keep on working and grow.“
Timotej Malovec, player of Inter: „We came here without some players, and we had to get through it. Děčín had many offensive rebounds, our defense wasn’t good, we often played a zone, we missed many free throws and opponent fought for a win.“
