After Tuesday’s wins by Spišskí Rytieri and Pardubice, which brought them closer to the AAC quarterfinals, Wednesday’s 5-game schedule brings more important games in terms of who will or won’t have a chance to play for the next playoff spots.
In Group A, the situation is quite interesting. Pardubice already have one foot in the playoffs, but Dabrowa Górznica and Oberwart Gunners have both 1 win and 2 losses, so their game together could be crucial for the second place in the group. The home team is calling time for a rematch of their first game against each other (71:74), but the Austrian team is determined to succeed. „With the victory against Gmunden we have gained a lot of self-confidence. Now we want to get our first away win in the Alpe Adria Cup. We will train well and be ready,“ said before the game captain of Gunners Sebastian Käferle.
In the Group B the cards are also dealt interestingly. The closest to the playoffs are Vienna, they would like to confirm their 100% record at home against Šibenka. „With a possible next win against Šibenka at home, we could secure our qualification for the next round. But I expect very hard work here – our opponents are a young team. We have to forget in this game that we beat them very badly in the first meeting. Šibenka started the season very well in Croatia and they will surely come to us very motivated and without much pressure and will surely give their best,“ thinks the coach of Vienna Aramis Naglić.
Šibenka and the others are mainly playing for second place, which the coach Damir Milačić is aware of: „Vienna has high ambitions in the domestic league and the Alpe Adria Cup. Their budget is such that they can compete with many teams in the ABA league. It’s up to us to try our best to recover from a difficult journey, make the most of every minute and try to stay in the game as long as possible.“
Ilirija has a chance to erase the zero from the win column, but Olomoucko will go for another win in this competition. “We are expecting a skilful team full of young players who will want to prove themselves in front of their own fans. It’s going to be a lot about whether we can learn from the last league game and limit our mistakes under our own basket. We want to win anyway to strengthen our chances to advance to the next stage of the competition,” said Olomoucko coach Tihomir Bujan.
Komárno has the best game record in Group C so far, they go to Croatia´s Škrljevo to fight for their third win in a row. “Every single player will give everything on the field to fight for victory. We are going to have a tougher time, basically every third day we will play a match, but that is no excuse. Škrljevo plays a Croatian style of basketball, they run a lot and score a lot of points from counter attacks. Overall, they are productive. They are in good shape, on a winning streak, so they deserve a lot of respect,” said Komárno coach Zlatko Jovanović.
The Kapfenberg Bulls will fight against Kolín for some hope of advancing into next round. „We are still at the beginning, we must all be aware of that, but we are delivering good approaches step by step. It takes time and a lot of adjustments to form a top team – we don’t want anything short-term, but to find and build a team again,“ revealed coach of Bulls Michael Schrittwieser.
AAC Regular season Week 4 schedule:
Group A
23th of November at 18.00 h: MKS Dabrowa Górnicza – UNGER STEEL Oberwart Gunners
Group B
23th of November at 19.00 h: BC GGMT Vienna – GKK Šibenka
23th of November at 20.00 h: Nutrisport Ilirija – BK REDSTONE Olomoucko
Group C
23th of November at 18.00 h: KK DepoLink Škrljevo – BC Komárno
23th of November at 19.00 h: Kapfenberg Bulls – BC GEOSAN Kolín
