BK ARMEX Decin vs. Sluneta Usti nad Labem 67:74 (17:17, 34:30, 52:48)
Referees: Hosek Jan, Kejklicek Roman, Hartig Lukas (all CZE).
Audience: 986.
Venue: ARMEX Sportcentrum.
Scorers Decin: Pomikalek 14, Kroutil 13, Zikla 11, Autrey 8, Jezek 7, Festr 5, Carlson 4, Siska 3, Grunt 2.
Scorers Sluneta: Svejcar 19, Bazant 13, Brown 10, Pecka 8, Davis 7, Houska 6, Madera 5, Karlovsky and Fait 3.
Klint Carlson won jumpball and later made an assist for Pomikalek who openned the score with three. Start of the season and already playoff mode in Decin was visible thanks to regional derby. Both teams fighting for every ball, nice ball moves, good basketball. First quatre tied 17:17.
With the second part, Decin started to struggle with shooting percentage. Despite good defense home team was not able to score from any good position. Many times ball wrenched from the rim. Anyway Decin found a leader in David Zikla in these moments who scored 9 of his 11 in this quatre as home team took a lead 34:30 in halftime.
Third quatre brought next part of basketball fight and real derby. Decin made a run on 52:44 as Festr and Kroutil made 8 points in a row. Finish of this part was tough for Warriors and Usti’s new player on tryout answered with 4 points to make it 52:48 after 30 minutes.
Forth quatre seemed to start to be tied as well but again, home team stopped to be able to get the ball through rim and Usti punished few mistakes to make key run on 56:63. Decin fought till the end and got back on 63:65 and 67:70 later. After good defense Decin turned the ball over and Usti took second win in group D.
Tomas Grepl, Coach of Decin: We did not get to the game at all regarding to tempo. Usti slowed us down, we were not able to move the ball how we want to. It showed us where we have to work out. We were not better in this game. Thanks especially to Houska, Usti showed us experienced selfconfident effort. We did not manage the finish of the game and we did not deserve to win.
Filip Kroutil, Player of Decin: This lost is very bitter because of czech and regional derby. But today we had really poor shooting percentage, which we have to be much better in next games. In a week our home league starts and there we have to play much better.
Antonin Pistecky, Coach of Sluneta: I am glad that we got the win. Decin has quality especially on home court. We manage to keep defensive rules that we wanted and even with this lower rotation we were able to get this win.
Lukas Bazant, Player of Sluneta: Great derby, electric atmosphere, good fans. Close game till the end, we had some blind moments, but we kept our heads up. In important moments we manage to get over Decin and finish was well played from us. So we are happy to have a win from Decin.
