BC GGMT Vienna – Spišskí Rytieri 93:80 (30:15, 28:19, 22:34, 13:12)
Attendance: 700
Venue: Hallmann Dome, Vienna
Scorers – Vienna: Murati 27, Siriščević 17, Manigat 14, Vujošević 10, Novas Mateo 7, Rados 6, Milošević and Savić each 5
Scorers – Spišskí Rytieri: McGlynn 24, Lopez 18, Juríček 11, Granič 9, Fusek 8, Antoni 7, Thomas 3, Hlivák, Mrviš and Sokolovskij 0
Home Vienna started in big style, especially in terms of offensive activity. It was clear that they didn’t want to leave anything to chance compared to the previous year, and the Rytieri basically couldn’t stop it from the start. Spišiaci tried to match the Austrian team’s activity, but Vienna’s individuality was qualitatively a level above. In addition, they played with great ease and had a well-read opponent. After the first part, the representative of Slovak basketball was losing 15:30. Nothing changed in the second quarter, Murati dragged the home team to participate in the finals. Although Spišská Nová Ves got their game going for a while and the effort to do something with the game was evident, Vienna quickly returned the game to the previous minutes. What’s more, the finish was also successful, with Siriščević adjusting to 58:34 just before the buzzer beater.
After the break, a completely different team of Spišskí Rytieri came out, especially from a defensive point of view. Their confidence was boosted by 6 consecutive points at the start of the third quarter and overall they were the better team on the floor in those moments. Vienna was in control of the action, but gradually lost ground. Before the last quarter, the team from Slovakia had a chance to turn it around, with the score 68:80 on the scoreboard. Rytieri still had some hope of reaching the finals, especially when they played their game and managed to reduce the deficit. But Vienna didn’t let the drama get to them and succeeded in the semi-finals without any major complications.
Post-game quotes:
Aramis Naglić, head coach of Vienna: “The first half basically decided, we played great and physical defense against Spišská Nová Ves After that we just guarded our point difference. After that we dropped a little bit of energy, because it’s clear that you can’t play such a high rhythm in defence for 40 minutes. I have to congratulate the boys.”
Enis Murati, player of Vienna: “We knew that our opponent had two good individuals, so our main goal was to stop them. I think overall we did a good job defensively. We did a good job on offense and I believe we can keep this rhythm.”
Teo Hojč, coach of Spišskí Rytieri: “Too bad about the first half, we didn’t react well to their physical play. They presented themselves like that and we were shocked. It took us the whole first half, we were off our game, we were losing our heads. We were making bad decisions defensively, leaving our best scorers too open. In the second half I think we were a lot better and played the way we wanted to play the whole game.”
Viktor Juricek, player of Spišskí Rytieri: “It was obvious in the first half that there was a huge difference in how physically Vienna plays. They were simply better. We may not have the momentum we had about a month ago. It’s hard to prepare for such a physical opponent, it was a level up and I believe that will only help us.”
