BK KVIS Pardubice – Spišskí Rytieri 73:59 (17:10, 15:17, 24:21, 17:11)
Referees: Robert Mordal, Michal Kuzia, Bogna Podkowiňska (all Poland)
Attendance: 767
Venue: Sportovní hala Dašická, Pardubice
Scorers – Pardubice: Vyoral 14, Rikić 13, Pekárek and Šafarčík each 10, Neal 8, Štěrba and Burda 5, Švrdlík and Novotný each 3, Potoček 2
Scorers – Rytieri: Lopez 17, Fusek 14, Granič 13, McGlynn 5, Hlivák 4, Mrviš, Thomas and Juríček 2
Pardubice started with big energy on both sides of the court, they scored 7 out of the first 8 shots and they were in the lead by 13 points in 4 minutes (15:2). Guests then lowered the difference, mainly thanks to Lopez and Fusek, but also thanks to several turnovers by the home team. However, Pardubice never let guests take the lead in the game. In the second half, Pardubice dominated at rebounding (total ratio 52-32, out of that 20 offensive) and, thanks to 16 points from second chances, got to digit lead again. That lead then grew to the maximum of 16 points in the last few moments before the end.
Post-game quotes:
Dino Repeša, coach of Pardubice: “Congratulations to my team, it was an important win. I think we had a chance to score more points and make the difference bigger. We had some turnovers and we lost some chances to score, but I have to be satisfied with our defense. Spišská Nová Ves is very good team and to keep them at 59 points is great. I hope we’ll keep playing this defence in our next games. We fought a lot under the basket, we had a lot of rebounds. We will see what will happen in the second game in Slovakia.”
Petr Šafarčík, player of Pardubice: “We’re satisfied with the point difference that we made, although it could have been bigger. The whole game was in parts, we started great, we were in the lead 15:2. I think it was in our hands to decide the game in the first half, but unfortunately we let them back into the game in the second quarter, which led to them gaining their confidence back. Again, we are grateful for the win and the points we have, but we know that it is not the end and we can’t underestimate the second game. Today’s win doesn’t mean we are the ones to go forward.”
Teo Hojč, coach of Spišskí Rytieri: “First of all, I would like to congratulate Pardubice’s team, they play good basketball. We had the chance to end it with a better result, but we had a bad shooting percentage. We had 17% at three-point shots, only scored 4 three-pointers in the whole game. We’re not used to that, on the contrary, we usually make a lot of points by that. Of course Pardubice forced us with their good defense, but we also didn’t make any open shots. It’s very hard to win a game like that. But we have one more game, it’s a home game for us, the difference in points isn’t small, but we want to fight for the win.”
Michal Fusek, player of Spišskí Rytieri: “From the beginning, Pardubice were much more aggressive than us. That was a big difference from the start, because we had a lot of turnovers and Pardubice scored some points out of that. I think the same thing happened in the last quarter, we had a bad defence and they got up to 20 points in the lead. It’s really hard to catch up in that situation. We still have one more game to play and we’ll try our hardest to prepare for that.”
