| 14th CROATIAN ALL STAR GAME 2009: Zadar's trio of Car-Peric-Downs scores 49 points, leads South to a convincing 124-114 victory in Beli Manastir |
| Written by Marjan Crnogaj |
| Wednesday, 20 January 2010 21:37 |
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CROATIAN ALL STAR GAME MVP – MARKO CAR, BC ZADAR The well timed basketball show was somehow depleted by wrong geographic positioning along with a concious terrible defensive effort by both sides. The Croatian Basketball Federation just won't give up trying to take the potentially most attractive game of the whole season from the few remaining fans in Croatian basketball centers like Zagreb, Zadar and Split. In the newest episode of a very pale imitation of the NBA-expansion in the late 80-s the CBF brought the game to the little known town of Beli Manastir in Slavonia's Baranja region. Hidden from everyone, except Croatian National Television cameras, some (not all) of the best players playing in Croatia at the moment displayed an extremely poor defensive effort which puts a question mark behind a final result of 114:124. The Game – No Defenses. From the very begining South's starting forwards Hrvoje Peric (15 points) and Micah Downs(10 points) took advantage of an extremely poor defensive effort by North's frontcourt and showed some great dunking skills while ending South's fast breaks on numerous occasions. Even though this was revial kind of a game some of the players elected to play should really consider not playing so an opportunity could be given to some younger players who are eager to show their skills on both ends of the floor. The well hidden stat sheet would show only two fouls in first quarter, just a couple of blocks in the whole game and a unbelievably high shooting percentage from the paint for both sides. One North player who came in eager to play on both ends of the floor and to prove himself more than everyone else was Cibona's talented forward Tomislav Zubcic who scored 19 points and in one sequence completed a nice end-to-end drive with a one-handed dunk. Slam Dunk Contest - Size over Matter. With two out of four contestants bigger than 6'10'' this again looked like a highly unattractive contest at the very begining. However BC Zadar Micah Downs displayed some real hoops along with the skill to make a couple of world-class dunks for the victory. The most interesting moment aside from Down's dunks was Zubcic's try to dunk it from the free-throw line. In a clear effort to complete this electrifying try first he stepped one foot into the paint and at the finish line ball ended up on the front of the rim. Three Point Contest - Touch over Skill. A pale effort by majority of contestants, especialy by Cibona's elite marksman Marko Tomas scoring only once after missing all three painted balls!?! BC Zadar's shooting guard Marko Car took advantage by displaying some great shooting touch along with the nice stroke from the downtown. He confirmed all the stories about his shooting talent circling around since his playing days in Karlovac. SUMMARY: Even though this was a clear non-defensive effort by both sides Croatian NT head coach Josip Vrankovic should give some extra points on his potential WC selectee list to the Game's MPV Marko Car(24 points) and his teammate SF Hrvoje Peric. Micah Downs displayed some NBA level skills, especialy at dunking the ball. |