Egis Körmend vs. UBSC Raiffeisen Graz
101:69 (26:17, 50:26, 84:45)
Referees: Tibor Kulcsár, Zsolt Szalai, Róbert Esztergályos (all HUN).
Audience: 1200.
Venue: Körmend Sports Hall, Körmend (HUN)
Scorers Egis Körmend: Ferencz 15, McNeail 14, Hammonds 12, Lajsz 10, Németh 9, Márton 8, Oroszi 8, Delas 7, Balogh 6, Bradford 6, Csorvási 4, Price 2.
Scorers UBSC Raiffeisen Graz: Hudson 21, Tyus 17, Richter 12, Nikolic 9, Turman 8, Rasic 2.
Gallery & Statistics
About the teams: both the 3rd ranked Egis Körmend and 4th ranked UBSC Raiffesein Graz played three games in their group from which Körmend won two, one on home court and one away in Graz, and lost one game away, while Graz had a streak of bad luck and so far they have lost each game. Tonight it will turn out whether Graz will be able to break their winless streak and manage to win away or Körmend will carry the day and be victoriuous on home court again.
The game started with the visitors 2 point lay-up by Hudson. After both teams missed some shots McNeail from Körmend answered with a shot from behind the arc which was followed with two other 3 point shots by him. During this period Ferencz also showed what a great 3-point shooter he is. At the beginning Graz showed a stronger play but after Csorvási tied the game the hosts took the leading position.
The second quarter was controlled by Körmend, who showed a much better performance. In the third minute Delas send them in their first double digit lead of the game and they led until the end of this period without changing their leading position. It was the hosts who went into halftime carrying a 24 point lead.
Although UBSC Graz had great attempts and tried hard to chip away at the lead in the second half of the game, it was not enough to take it and win. They lost their rhythm and did not have enough energy.
It was Egis Körmend who controlled the entire game with increasing their lead in each quarter. Constantinides let the bench players play, giving them chance to play and saving the starting five for next game. With Balogh’s free throw Körmend scored over 100.
It was a good game for Ferencz who led his team to a victory with 15 points in 13 minutes and McNeail with his 14 point in 17 minutes.
Hudson scored 21 in 36 minutes and and Tyus scored 17 in 33 minutes were the leading scorers of the visitors.
Antonis Constantinides, head coach of Körmend: “First of all I want to wish all the best for Graz team and to its coach and especially in the Austrian championship to find their way back and to return back in a succesfull result. It was very clear on the court that there was a big difference between the two teams. We caught successfull the target of this series to give more time to the young players who do not play too much time in the Hungarian championship. I am very happy because as I said we cought our aim. I am very happy that day by day I watch Nemeth, Oroszi and Márton to grow very-very fast on court and that makes me happy as a coach. In this year if we win a title I am much more happy if I have this young players on court and also the other young guys played today. We tried to respect as much as we can our opponent team. From tomorrow on our attention is on the biggest game coming on Saturday against Falco. We will give everything to win this game and we want to stay in the second position in the league and want to give happiness to our fans. I expect the court to be full because it will be a very interesting game on Saturday. We have to make a lot of things if we want to win that game. Falco is not about our biggest opponent but a very-very good team. We have to make a lot of things better if we want to beat them. For another time good luck and all the bests for Graz.”
Ádám Márton, player of Körmend: “First of all I would like to thank you the possiblity from our head coach to put me on court. I tried to do my best. It was a good possibility to prepare for our next game on Saturday agains Falco in the Hungarian Championship. It was more useful than a practice. I am very happy that everybody could play and we could reach more than 100 points again. Congratulation to Graz. Thanks for the fans for the support. I hope on Saturday everybody will come back and support us again.”
Milos Sporar, head coach of Graz: “First of all I want to congratulation to Körmend and to the coach of the team for this winning game. Today we watched only one team on court. Generally we are a little bit down now. We have some crisis we are not in a good shape and we are not in a good form lets say. With some reasons because in the last 10 days we did not practice too much we had 4 games in the last 8 days and this is the reason why we loose today with such a big difference. Körmend is absolutely better team than Graz. We were today completely out of shape and played without energy. Now is the time when my team and all players need to stay together and start to work and find chemistry which we had 2-3 weeks ago.”
Tomislav Rasic, player of Graz: “Körmend played better today. They deserved to win today. We have to fight more in the game for the game and thats it.”
