SC Derby basketball players defeated Cibona (101:86) tonight in "Morača", recording their sixth victory in the regional competition, and their second in a row.
The "students" led from the start of the match, having a 17-point lead in the first half, but Cibona fell to minus two (63:61) at the end of the third quarter. But then Nikola Pavlićević entered the game, and on his wings the "students" went to 80:63 and settled the match.
"An important victory, with which we confirmed the triumph in Subotica in the previous round. We defeated Cibona by a larger margin than they defeated us in Zagreb in the first half and now we are much calmer about the continuation of the championship. We had a lot of problems this week - on Tuesday we played against Podgorica in a Montenegrin league match, in which three players were injured. Since then, we have been training every day without three or four players, who have serious minutes. That made our job difficult, and it is possible that we oscillated because of that. From absolute control, we brought Cibona back to one possession behind. We reacted well and controlled the result until the end. A well-deserved and very important victory," said SC Derbija coach Petar Mijović after the match.
Mijović then turned to Nikola Pavlićević.
"Pavlićević is the most experienced player on this team, I can't find a grade to rate his work ethic. The way he works, how he behaves in training, when he plays fewer minutes, the approach is always the same. Tonight he came on at the end of the third quarter, and then turned the game around not only with shots, but also with energy. Pavlićević has been the team's gold for years. He has often been an x-factor, a player who has the ability to do a lot of positive things in a short amount of time," said Mijović.
Cibona coach Josip Sesar also said that with Pavlićević's arrival, SC Derbi has gained additional energy.
"SC Derbi controlled the game. We came close to two points, and then the experienced Pavlićević came on. He is used to playing in the zone, he has a large number of these games, he solved the game with his individual quality. The season is long, we will try to progress in the table, and we still have the Croatian championship. I hope that the injured players will recover as soon as possible and that we will bring in two players. We are active on the market, but it is difficult at the moment. I hope that we will manage to strengthen in the foreseeable future," said Sesar.
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