In the 21st round of the ABA League, the basketball players of Zadar beat the fully announced Cedevita Olimpija with a score of 81:59. The Dragons collected a total of four assists on the road in Dalmatia.
With a win, the people of Ljubljana would secure the playoffs, but in the hall on Sour cherrywhich carries had legendary Zadar basketball player Krešimir Ćosić, who also worked as a coach and player at Olimpija, the home team, which has a lot of financial problems this year, taught them a fair lesson. With their sixth defeat, the Slovenian champions are losing the fight on distance for third place. Namely, they have the same number of defeats as Budućnost, which has a better head-to-head record, and the Dragons still have a back-to-back meeting with Crvena Zvezda.
A total of 26 points in the first half
The match was an indicator of all the problems that Cedevita Olimpija has this season. As usual, he starts the matches poorly. Also the meeting in Zadar, when she trailed 10:3 after just over three minutes. Yogi Ferrell brought it closer with three-pointers, but already in the ninth minute, the hosts took a double-digit lead for the first time. Everything The dragons managed 13 points in the first quarter, and repeated the modest achievement in the second.
At halftime, the Dalmatians were leading by as much as 17 points on the anemic performance of the visiting team, the meeting was practically already decided. Zadar easily broke through Ljubljana’s defense, which has been very mediocre practically all season. Even the worst in the European Cup, even in the ABA League, Cedevita Olimpija does not shine defensively.
Only one assist in the first half and three in the second
This time the attack was even worse. Jurica Golemac’s game shows a lack of chemistry between basketball players who do not play as a real team. Every match there are too many individual actions and forced attacks by certain individuals, and in Zadar this lack of connection was particularly glaring. Namely in the first 20 minutes managed to collect only one assist for the Dragons, and added only three in the second.
The second half of the meeting did not bring a twist or a better game from Cedevita Olimpija either. Zadar led the most by 26. The people of Ljubljana shot 40% for two, 25 for three, and 58 free throws. The first scorer for the guests was Josh Adams with 17 points, Ferrell added 16, Alen Omić 11, and Zoran Dragić ten . Dario Dreznjak there are on the other side gave 20, and Luka Božić 19.
Round 21: ZADAR – CEDEVITA OLYMPIA81:59 (22:13, 21:13, 21:15, 17:18)1200; Dreznjak 20, Božić 19, Davis 11, Žganec and Ramljak 10 each, Lakić 8, Čampara 3; Adams 17, Ferrell 16, Omić 11, Dragić 10, Jeremic 3, Murić 2.
At 7:30 p.m: SAILOR – THE FIGHTER
IGOKEA – FMP 77:70
CIBONA – THE FUTURE 83:87
MEGA BASKETBALL – MZT SKOPJE 93:86
Monday at 18:00: SC DERBY – SPLIT
At 8:30 p.m.: PARTISAN – RED STAR
Lestvica: PARTIZAN 20 18 2 +353 38 CRVENA ZVEZDA 19 17 2 +304 36 BUDUĆNOST 21 15 6 +192 36 CEDEVITA OLIMPIJA 20 14 6 +135 34 FMP 21 12 9 +71 33 ZADAR 21 10 11 +10 31 MEGA BASKET 21 10 11 -9 31 SC DERBY 20 9 11 -94 29 CIBONA 21 8 13 -223 29 SPLIT 20 8 12 -99 28 IGOKEA 20 6 14 -115 26 MORNAR 19 6 13 -127 25 MZT SKOPJE 21 4 17 -214 25 BORAC 20 5 15 -182 24
Source: Rtvslo
