| ADRIATIC LEAGUE – 5th ROUND: Zadar 77, Partizan 66 |
| Written by Sime Taras |
| Tuesday, 19 January 2010 09:39 |
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ZADAR vs PARTIZAN 02.11.2009. - COACH STATEMENTS AFTER THE MATCH This weekend`s most interesting Adriatic League match ended in Zadar`s win over Partizan, a team who has dominated this league for the past three years. The final result was 77-66. Zadar now lies in the fourth place of Adriatic League standings, with 3 wins and 2 defeats.
In front of 6500 fans, Zmago Sagadin players showed some great defence and were in control almost the whole match. Rok Stipcevic lead the Zadar team with 18 points and 4 assists, along with Hrvoje Peric (15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks) and Damir Rancic (11 points). New Zadar`s back up PG Vedran Morovic also participated with 2 points and 1 assist in 4 minutes spent on the court. Best Partizan players were Aleksandar Maric (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Jan Vesely (16 points, 4 rebounds).
Duel of Zadar and Partizan are always enchanted with a special attention, irrelevant of the position of the scale, irrelevant of the team ambitions. So it was this time. In front of around 6500 fans the main event of the evening could begin.
The game was set up as expected. Both coaches showed special attention to the defense, Partizan used the inside game with Maric, Vesely and Roberts while Zadar was more open to three point shots and pick and roll and pick and pop game. Partizan players weren`t able to hit their open shots and that gave them problems in the offense.
Zadar began to separate in the second quarter. While the first quarter was pretty tied and ended 13-10, in the second quarter Zadar started to play better and after two succesful three pointers by Peric And Rancic Zadar had a ten point advantage. By the end of the first half it has been reduced to 39-27.
The third quarter did not bring any change. Zadar successfully balanced between 10 and 15 points in advantage until the final two minutes of the quarter when Partizan reduced to 56-47, with good play of Milosevic and Roberts.
In the middle of the fourth quarter Partizan came to 63-59, but then Car, Boisa and Ruzic with their succesful three point shots return Zadar to a ten point advantage. Rok Stipcevic sealed the game with his two three pointers in the last minute of the game. The final result was 77-66.
In the next round Zadar plays against the undefeated Cibona in Zagreb, their biggest rival. A great game is always guaranteed between these two opponents.
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