The 350 fans who came to Gripe last night had good reason to celebrate. After a devastating 8 losses and last position in the league, the first-ever ABA league victory against the guests from Republika Srpska could not have come at a better time.
Both teams had good reasons why they needed a success. Igokea was hoping to strengthen its position amongst the top 8 teams to qualify for the play-offs, however, “The Yellows” from Split had an urge to leave the end of the list in order to maintain a chance to avoid relegation.
It only took a few minutes until everyone could see who was the better team and why. Split’s Shannon Shorter was unstoppable right from the start. The guests could neither stop him nor were they able to launch counterstrikes themselves. The 10:12 guest lead in the sixth minute was continuously remodeled by the hosts and turned into an 18 point lead in the 23rd minute of the match (54:36).
Burak Canboy
The guests tried to come back, but Coach Srđan Subotić’s team found quality answers to all of Igokea’s attacks, even without the injured players Roko Ukić and Toni Perković. Apart from Top Scorer Shorter (28 points), Nejc Barić and Maj Kovacević also set exclamation marks by each hitting 4 of their 7 three-point attempts. Darko Bajo added another 14 points.
Burak Canboy
“This is a very important victory for us, because of the situation in the table. We needed this self-confidence and faith that we are on the right track. This is proof that we can play against serious teams” was Subotic’s comment on the success.
Burak Canboy
Guest coach Mirko Barač’s team could not show the same quality of play that they had shown in the Champions League lately where they were close to qualifying for the round of 16. Marko Jošilo was his best scorer with 17 points followed by Robinson and Ilić with 14 each.
Final result 89:77 (By quarter: 23:18, 24:18, 16:21, 26:20).
Referees: Marko Juras, Ivan Stefanović, Stefan Ćalić
Box Score:
https://www.aba-liga.com/match/120/21/1/Overview/q1/1/home/split-igokea-m-tel/
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