BK KVIS Pardubice – MKS Dabrowa Górnicza 69:78 (21:24, 16:21, 13:14, 19:19)
Referees: Paul Trmal, Miloš Štokić, Stefan Jager (Austria)
Audience: 547
Venue: Sportovní hala Dašická, Pardubice
Scorers – Pardubice: Pekárek 21, Čolak 12, Vyoral 11, Švrdlík and Potoček each 8, Svoboda 4, Burda 3, Štěrba 2
Scorers – Dabrowa Górnicza: Verge 20, Drame 13, Radwanski 10, Kucharek 9, Piechowicz 8, Rajewicz and Mokros each 7, Bluiett and Chealey each 2
Pardubice were in the lead just in the beginning of the game (2:0 and 4:3), they were losing since then, although until the end of the third quarter the biggest difference was by 9 points. The guest team scored 10 three-pointers in the first half of the game and thanks to that, they played with a lot of confidence in the offense. Every time Pardubice lowered the difference to 4-6 points, their opponents scored. In the beginning of fourth quarter Tomáš Vyoral lowered with a three point shot to 53:59, but guest team scored four points in a row and for the first time, they were in a lead by 10 points. They definitively secured the win in the 35th minute, where they scored 6 points, which set them to lead by 12 points.
Post-game quotes:
Dino Repeša, coach of Pardubice: “I want to congratulate the team of Dabrowa Górnicza. It wasn’t an easy game for us, we wanted to end on a winning note. Unfortunately we played without two of our top players, Rikič and Šafarčík, but Dabrowa Górnicza also gave a chance to play to some younger and less experienced players. It felt more like a friendly game than an actual competition. We didn’t have enough energy on defense like I wanted to before the game and we missed a lot of open shots in the offense. I think the key factor was rebounding. I know we are on the shorter side without Rikič, but that is not a good reason for why our opponents dominated there. We will move on, we will try to get back our two important players and practise for our last league game before the Christmas break.”
David Pekárek, player of Pardubice: “We did not enter the game the way we wanted to, mainly on the defensive part, and we played that way for the whole game. I think we lost in rebounding. We were also not good at 1 on 1 matches and we let them a lot of open shots. Basically, our whole defence was bad. We weren’t that bad on offense, although we missed some open shots, but I think defence was the reason why we lost the game tonight. We let some young guys play decent minutes, which is good, even though our communication wasn’t the best. But a lot of us older players made a lot of mistakes, we can’t let the young ones take the blame. We are still going forward from the first place in the group, which is nice, and I am also glad that nobody got injured and we can move on and play our league next week.”
Jacek Winnicki, coach of Dabrowa Górnicza: “We are happy that we have won. We came here with the plan to let everybody play, because this game didn’t mean much to the ranking, Pardubice finished first and we finished second, we both went forward to the quarterfinals. I let everybody play and we practiced some stuff that we need for our next games in our league. I am also glad that nobody got injured. We had a very good shooting night in the first half, we made a lot of three-point shots, but our defence was also correct. We kept Pardubice under 70 points, which is not usual for their team. We controlled the game from the beginning. I wish Pardubice all the best in their semifinals.”
Joe Chealey, player of Dabrowa Górnicza: “It was a good team win. Obviously we both knew that we were going to the next round, but it was still good to get out and play like a team and get a win. Even though we ended up second in the group and we knew that before, you still want to win, no matter your position or who plays against you, you always want to play the game of basketball at the highest level and compete for the win. The deciding factor for our victory tonight was that we played together. We were sharing the ball for the most part. We also played a pretty good defense. I think if you do those two things and don’t turn the ball over, you give yourself a chance to win every time.”