Egis Körmend is only one step away of making it to the Alpe Adria Cup finals. They overcame GTK Gliwice 105:85 in the first semfinal-game at home.
Egis Körmend vs. GTK Gliwice
105:85 (29:21, 53:32, 79:61)
Referees: Péter Praksch, Zsolt Szalai, Ádám Földesi (all HUN).
Audience: 800.
Venue: Körmend Sports Hall (HUN).
Scorers Egis Körmend: TJ Price 29, Mario Delas 21, Csorvási 17, Ferencz 11, Bradford 11, Thames 11, Németh 5.
Scorers GTK Gliwice: Dlonjak 21, Mack 20, Morgan 10, Dodd 10, LaChance 7, Robak 7, Washington 3, Piechowicz 3, Kiwilsza 2, Slupinski 2.
Gallery & Statistics
This is the first time that Egis Körmend has qualified for the semi-finals in the Alpe Adria Cup and have an opportunity to get closer to win the cup. But until then they have some very important games to play. Tonight the hosts, who have won 5 games and lost 3 games so far this season, are playing against GTK Gliwice from Poland, who have had 6 won and 2 lost games. Unfortunately, one of Körmend’s top players, Leyton Hammonds, is not able to step on court today as he is still recovering from concussion that he received during last weekend’s game.
Gliwice got the jump ball but they did not managed to score a point. It was T.J. Price from Körmend who opened the game with a 3-point shot, which was soon afterwards followed with another one from behind the arc by him. Although in the second minute the hosts led by 9 points, Gliwice did their best so they could chip away at the lead during this period but it was not enough to tie the game. It was the hosts who were better at defence and scored more points.
The second quarter started with Ferencz’s 3-point jump shot with which the home team had the first 10-point lead during the game. There were nice shots on both sides, the visitors made efforts to catch up with but Körmend were in the game all the way through and controlled the whole period. With Delas’ dunk in the last minute the hosts went into halftime carrying a 21 point lead.
After the haltime break Körmend continued its strong play and with Price’s shot from behind the arc they had a 10 point run and gained a 31-point advantage. Glewice tried to come back into game and thanks to their great attempts, good defence and more accurate shooting, they were able to reduce the hosts’ advantage.
In the last 10 minutes the home team carried on dominating the game while the visitors struggled with their strengh. Delas’ free throw Körmend had a chance to score 100 points and the game ended with their victory.
From Egis Körmend T.J. Price helped his team to win the game recording 29 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in 32 minutes on court. Dloniak was the leading scorer of the visitors with his 21 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 24 minutes.
Matthias Zollner, head coach of Körmend: “Well I think we played good in the first half but we got a taste of how good team of Gliwice is. In the second half they scored 53 points. We know what happened to Zalaegerszeg in Poland so for us like coach said it is only the first half. In this competition there are 2 games and this game is only the first half which means nothing. And now we had one step and have to make the next in the tournament.”
Németh Ákos, player of Körmend: “I think we really played well in the first half. We made 53 points while we got 32. Then in the second half our agressive defense fell behind and we got 53 in the second half from them. This is too much. Although we won by 20 points, we should not be too optimistic for the away game. Zalaegerszeg showed a bad example when they won home by 21 and they lost there by 29. We have to be very agressive on the next game and then we will have a chance to qualify for the final.”
Pawel Turkiewicz, head coach of Gliwice: “First game in the first half we played soft. We gave too much easy points especially from transition. We sleep in the first half and made too much turnovers. In the second half we tried to come back to the game. And from open shots we scored a couple of important points in the right moment. This is baskeball, next Tuesday second game.”
Myles Mack, player of Gliwice: “Today they came out stronger than us from the beginning. They got in transition easy baskets. They put pressure on us. They play great defense through all 4 quarters and they execute and they came out to win.”
