GKK Šibenka – Patrioti Levice 64:79 (12:23, 17:25, 16:21, 19:10)
Referees: Grbič, Pipan, Palčič (all Slovenia)
Attendance: 150
Venue: Baldekin (Šibenik, Croatia)
Scorers – Šibenka: Bašić and Paić each 13, Arslanagić 12, Jambrović 9, Gulin 7, Antić 4, Pleadin and Solomun each 3, Grgurica and Živković 0
Scorers – Patrioti: Abrhám 17, Krajčovič 15, Juríček 13, Lacy 12, Freeman 10, Bojanovský 6, McCallum 5, Volárik 1, Adámik and Chaban 0
The team from Slovakia started with bigger energy and intensity. Krajčovič and Lacy managed to get Levice into a double-digit lead in the first quater. Šibenka was trying to respond in the second quarter, but their plan worked only short-term. Slovak team managed to dictate the tempo of the match, after the first half they were winning by 19 points – 48:29. After the break, pretty much nothing changed. Patrioti was raising their lead. In the last quarter Šibenka managed to work on some things, which resulted in to winning this part of the matches. But Levice had everything under control, so they started their next campaign in AAC with a win.
Post-game quotes:
Damir Milačić, head coach of Šibenka: “The first international match. I am happy that we are playing this competition. We welcomed the AAC, we need a game in this lineup, to rise through games and not just through training. Today’s game practically ended in the first quarter. We had a lot of missed situations in the attack that were not provoked by their defense, but by our mistakes or open situations and failures. As for the defense, we played it well, but you can’t play the defense as well as we missed today.
I agree that today’s game looked bad and that we did it cosmetically, but when you look at the lineup with which we did it, it makes me optimistic about something that should follow. I don’t look at this tragically. I know what kind of young players we have and I know how much inexperience is here. It takes a lot of patience and when it opens up a bit, I believe in the progress of the team. Patrioti Levice was better, and we should congratulate them, but I do not see this defeat tragically.”
Patrik Jambrović, player of Šibenka: “I think we entered the game scared and we respected our opponents too much and ourselves too little. Afterwards we relaxed a bit and started playing, but that was the biggest problem of the match. We will get up throughout the season and we will play better and better. I think we can progress much faster than some experienced teams.”
Michal Madzin coach of Patrioti: “It wasn’t easy and I am happy that we controlled the game. We build the lead the whole time. The young guys in Šibenka were really fighting and they showed that they could play and have talent inside of them. This was our first official game so we are happy that we started with the win.”
Simon Krajčovič, player of Patrioti: “It was an important win for us. First official game of the season and we started it with a win. It wasn’t easy, but I am glad that we won this game. We know that this game it’s not going to be easy because of the opponents, they run very physically, but I am happy that we controlled the game from the beginning.”
