MMCITÉ1 BASKET BRNO : SWANS GMUNDEN 79:84 (22:16, 43:41, 60:62)
Referees: Karafiát, Dombrovský, Melichárek (all CZE).
Audience: 150.
Venue: Ball games hall FSpS MU (Brno, CZE).
Brno: Heřman 20, Stegbauer 17, Novotný 11, Farský 9, Smithson 8, Kozina, Nehyba (both 5), Körner 4.
Gmunden:Loveridge, Blazan (both 17), Ogunyemi 15, Murati 14, Friedrich 13, Schartmüller 5, Linortner 3.
We dominated Gmunden in the first few minutes. After beginning with a 5-0 run, we were leading 7:2 in the fourth minute of the game. Unfortunately, Gmunden immediately came back. The same scenario then happened again and we were tied with two minutes to go. At the end of the first quarter Filip Novotný hit two important three pointers and we went into the second quarter with a six-point lead. We kept the momentum even in the second half where we maintained a ten-point lead up to the fifth minute. Gmunden then started slowly coming back and finished the first half with just a two-point deficit.
The second half started off quite slowly. Both teams were tied and none of them got in a larger lead. This went on for the whole third quarter. An important moment happened when Richard Körner fouled out of the game just few seconds before the beginning of the final quarter. The loss of Körner seemed to pump us up as we grabbed a ten-point lead in just three minutes. Gmunden however was not ready to let the game go and came back with four minutes to go. Even though there was just a one-point difference a minute before the end, Swans showed their quality and won 79:84.
Anton Mirolybov, head coach of Swans Gmunden:“It was not the most beautiful basketball game but in the end I am happy that we did not give up. The home team was playing strong and physical basketball. They already had us twice, they were leading by ten points in the second quarter and the fourth quarter. I am really happy how my players fought back and did not give up. Huge respect to Brno team and I wish them all the best in the season opener, they are starting their season this week. And of course, it is nice to start the Alpe Adria Cup with a win.”
Lubomír Růžička, head coach of mmcité1 Basket Brno:“First of all, I would like to thank the coach for the nice words and I wish you, the team and the club all the best in your league. We encountered the same things as in the preseason. We played up and down like we were on a rollercoaster. We are able to play good basketball on both ends for five or seven minutes which leads to nice plays and open shots. But that is not important now. I am not a fan of stats and prefer a personal feeling about a match. The feeling today is not good. We had twenty-one turnovers, thirteen in the second half, that led to twenty-eight points for Gmunden. Fourteen open layups. We were preparing for their defence, our players knew about it but we did not execute well. We all are responsible, not just players but coaches as well. It is not a tragedy, but we wanted to win. Especially because of all the fans that came which I am really thankful for. They cheered for us even when we were not playing well. And if we limit the turnovers that sometimes seem child-like we have an interesting team coming forward. Even though we played against well organised and coached team, we have to limit our mistakes in order to be successful.”
Daniel Friedrich, player of Swans Gmunden: “I think it was a good win for us. We started off a little slow and we were undisciplined on defence in the first half. We were always one step late. They did a good job taking an advantage of that and were finding open shooters and knocking down shots. But we did not panic and our main focus, especially in the second quarter, to make sure that we were in right positions on defence. I think we did a much better job with that especially in the fourth quarter. We did not have a good shooting day on offense, but we were able to get to a free throw line. We also got a lot of points in the paint. We just did not panic at the end, even though we were down twice by double digits. We were able to fight back and get the win.”
Lukáš Stegbauer, player od mmcité1 Basket Brno: “I think we played quite a good match. In my opinion, we were better the whole time. Unfortunately, we had some sequences where we did not play well. We were able to guard them in defence and play together in offense. Of course, there were collapses and Gmunden took advantages of them. That was the deciding factor. If we will work on our turnovers, we have a pretty good ground to go up from. I hope we will do a better job in our home season opener.”
