Egis Körmend is the new champion of Alpe Adria Cup. They flipped the script in the second final agains KK Skrljevo and overcame them infront of their enthusiastic home fans.
Egis Körmend vs. KK Skrljevo
92:71 (22:18, 47:34, 76:51)
Referees: Gellért Kapitány, Róbert Török, Alajos Horváth (all HUN).
Audience: 1500.
Venue: Körmend Sports Hall, Hungary.
Scorers Egis Körmend: Hammonds 24, Bradford 17, Thames 14, Csorvási 12, Delas, Price 8, Ferencz 4, Németh 4.
Scorers KK Skrljevo: Williams 15, Sarac 14, Barnjak 12, Yacoubou 10, Stenberger 8, Uljarevic 6, Krstanovic 6.
Statistics
A very important game was taking place as this is the return leg between the finalists, Egis Körmend and KK Adria Oil Skrljevo, in Körmend, Hungary. It is the last game of 2018/19 season and soon it will turn out who will be the champion of the Alpe Adria Cup in 2019.
On 3 April 2019, Skrljevo gained a 9-point advantage on home court in Mavrinci Sports Hall. For them, the aim of the game is to keep or increase their advantage, while the task for Egis Körmend is to overturn this 9-point advantage in the next 40 minutes.
Before the game, the general manager of Egis Körmend, Zsolt Németh, gave his speech to open the Alpe Adria Cup final game and he welcomed all the representatives, supporters, guests and other visitors who came to be a witness of the final game.
Egis Körmend got the jump ball but it was Skrljevo who managed to score the first basket and opened the final game with a 3-point jump shot by Sarac, which was soon afterwards followed with another shot from behind the arc by Yacoubou. The visiting team started better and they were very good at long distance shooting (75%). Körmend did not give up and made attempts to stop their opponent and they finally did. The home team collected more rebounds and gained more points in the paint, which helped them to finish this period with an advantage of 4 points.
In the second quarter the hosts continued their play that they had started in the second part of the first period. As minutes passed and the game carried on they became stronger and stronger. In the fourth minute Körmend had the first 10-point lead during the game with Ferencz’s lay-up. Unfortunately, in the seventh minute T.J. Price got injured but luckily he was able to continue the game. There were nice shots on both sides, the visitors made efforts to catch up but Körmend were in the game all the way through, increasing their advantage and went into halftime carrying a 13-point lead.
After the haltime break Körmend was still controlling the play and with Hammond’s lay-up they made a 21-point difference. Skrljevo tried to come back into game. Although the visitors had great attempts they lost their rhythm and could not reduce the hosts’ advantage.
In the last 10 minutes the home team carried on dominating the game while the visiting team struggled with their strengh.
Körmend unstoppably controlled the whole game and with their victory on home court they have deserved to become not just the champion of the Alpe Adria Cup but also the first Hungarian winner in this cup series.
From Egis Körmend Hammonds made a double double and helped his team to win the final game recording 24 points, 10 rebounds in 29 minutes on court.
Matthias Zollner, head coach of Körmend: “Congratulations to my players and to the fans of Körmend. I think we played well defensively today. We know that on our court we alway playing good offensively where we have emotions from the croud. I think we deserved today to win this championsip. Best luck for Skrljevo for the rest of the season and safe travel to home.”
Milán Csorvási, player of Körmend: “I am very happy that we won and we could finish this series as a champion team. I think we can be proud of it and it gives us more power to continue our way in the Hungarian Championship.”
Damir Rajkovic, head coach of Skrljevo: “Congratulations to Körmend. They played much better than we did. The croud is very nice here and I think this is basketball and I hope that in the next year we will be better in the final.”
Brian Williams, player of Skrljevo: “Both teams played hard and we worked hard together to get this point. It was a great team and we would like to get back in the future.”
