BK REDSTONE Olomoucko – KK Ilirija 85:76 (23:20, 19:18, 26:14, 17:24)
Attendance: 200
Scorers – Olomoucko: Shawer 24, Bailey 20, McBrayer 15, Adamu 13, Škranc and Žák each 5, Hemphill 3, Tkadlec, Grmolenský, Feštr and Klepač 0
Scorers – Ilirija: Orel 32, Mačura 15, Kures 9, Ferme and Mikuš each 5, Ščekić 4, Padjen and Barišić each 2, Strnad, Girošek, Mulalić and Gustin
The Slovenians arrived with an almost complete line-up, yet Olomoucko quickly gained a six-point lead. In the following minutes, however, the ball was unnecessarily lost several times, and after Ferme’s three-pointer, Ilirija led 20:17 in the eighth minute. The REDSTONE players responded quickly and turned the score to 23:20 after the first quarter. At the beginning of the second half, Olomoucko did not hit the basket for almost three minutes, yet they did not let the opponent take the lead. The opponent from the suburbs of Ljubljana only worked their way to a tie score of 26:26, then paid for worse shooting, which Olomoucko was able to punish. After a series of seven points, it jumped to 39:32 in the 18th minute, a moment later, it even led by eight points and went to the booth with a favorable score of 42:38.
Shortly after the start of the second half, Ilirija equalized at 44:44, but from that moment on, the scoreboard belonged to the REDSTONE players and their fourteen-point streak for a long time. The home team was successful in defense and strong in finishing and worked their way to a 65-48 lead in the 28th minute. They entered the final part of the match with a favorable score of 68:52 and were close to success. But the Slovenian team reacted really quickly with a series of seven points and got down to a minus. However, the local basketball players did not allow another onslaught and registered their first victory in the new year of the Alpe Adria Cup.
Post-game quotes:
Andy Hipsher, coach of Olomoucko: “It was a difficult match for us, after the league, we had to quickly focus on another competition. You could see it in the first half, but in the third quarter we managed to put more energy into the game, and it was in these minutes that we gained a decisive lead. It was a good experience for us and a confrontation with Slovenian basketball, which has great quality.”
Stipe Modrić, coach of Ilirija: “The game didn’t work out for us. We lost twelve balls in the first half, that’s a high number. In the third quarter, the players lost concentration, and the opponent quickly took advantage of this and gained a decisive lead. We wanted to play a better match, we didn’t give up and tried until the end, but Olomoucko didn’t give us a chance to make the match significantly more dramatic.”
