Three years ago, Podgorica basketball players reached the semi-finals of the NLB ABA2 league for the first time. The team, then led by Zoran Kašćelan, first eliminated Borac from Banja Luka in the quarter-finals of the final tournament in Podgorica, and then lost to Spurs from Sarajevo in the semi-finals.
Last season, the team, then led by Nebojša Bogavac, also reached the semi-finals. After the regular part, Podgorica defeated Zlatibor in the quarter-finals, who were the current champions of the league at that moment, and then in the semi-finals they lost to Krka, who later won the title.
The Podgorica team repeated that success this season. They finished the regular season in sixth place, and then in the quarter-finals they defeated Zlatibor both times and scheduled a semi-final with Vojvodina, which is one of the favorites to enter the AdmiralBet ABA League, and which finished the regular season in second place. The first match is today (17) in "Bemax Arena".
"For the third time, we have reached the semi-finals in what seems to be a never stronger league, and now we have a double match against Vojvodina, which is tactically and physically at a high level, but also well led by the coach. It will be difficult to repeat the edition and the result from the quarter-final against Zlatibor, but I hope that the boys are ready to give their best. Unlike the match against Zlatibor, we had a little more time for analysis and rest, so we are impatiently waiting for the match to start," said Podgorica coach Dragan Radović.
Radović will not be able to count on Đukanović and Ivanović, while Žižić will be in the lineup.
"Just like in the quarter-finals, we now have staffing problems, because there is no Đukanović in the team, Ivanovic will not play, and Žižić will be in the team, but the question is how much he will be able to help us. However, we will try to play at the highest possible level and with the better result we can go to the rematch," said Radović.
Podgorica defeated Vojvodina on the "balloon" in Široki Brijeg in the regular part of the season (77:71). But after that "balloon", the team from Novi Sad was strengthened by Zoran Nikolić and Luka Asćerić.
"Our next opponent is the team from Podgorica. The team that is currently in the best form of all the participants in the semi-finals. This is confirmed by the fact that they scored over 100 points in both games against Zlatibor. Defensive transition and jump control, above all defensively, must be at a very high level in both matches against rivals. Good 'spacing' in the attack and as few lost balls as possible are also important in order to enable us to impose our game rhythm through positional defense," said Vojvodina coach Miloš Isakov-Kovačević.
The second match will be played on May 19 (27) in Novi Sad. The second semi-final pair consists of Spartak and MZT, and they will play the first match on April XNUMX in Skopje.
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