KK Partizan - Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd 84:70 (Eurocup)

It was obvious we couldn't qualify for the next round of Eurocup, therefore we had absolutely no pressure on us and as an outcome we beat the Russians like hailstorm does the crops. Five wild Volgograd-players ran out to the ground ready to eat us up, and at the end of the match five sad, philosophic Russians walked to the tunnel towards the locker-room.
In the beginning it didn't seem to be this smooth. The Russian top gun Ponkrashov immediately threw a 3-pointer. Mačvan replied instantly (2:3). Russians threw another basket, Tepić did so from our side with an easy movement (4:5). Then Mačvan, who, by the way, played the troll tonight, took us on the lead teamworking with Tepić (6:5). Volgograd entered Ponkrashov again (6:7), from our side arrived the one and only Gagi Kapiten (8:7).

Marinković vs. Ponkrashov

At 8:9 Mačvan got a rebound and switched the counter again for our benefit (10:9). At this point the team got fed up with this seesaw and gave full throttle. Saša Pavlović arrived, who is definitely Partizan’s two-legged nuclear reaktor and the standing jumped to 12:9. Mačvan got another rebound (14:9), then again Pavlović (16:9) and Dallo also helped to stabilize our advantage (16:14). The end of the quarter was 23:16.
In the second quarter the standing was modified from 28:20 to 27:20, referees were on the viewpoint that Andrić was standing inside the 3-pointer area when throwing a basket. (I disagreed. Pity I’m not a basketball referee.) Then the Russians equalized making a 7-point series. They even wanted to take the lead (28:30), but Tepić caught a rebound by Marinković and equalized. And so it was going. Volgograd was on the lead with 2-3 points and we always equalized. At 36:36 Milutinov got a bonus shot and scored, of course (37:36). The half time was 41:42.
But then came the third part when we heated up the Parni valjak and there was no return anymore. The standing was 45:42, when Milosavljević himself had a 9:2 series out of three 3-pointers, with the ecstatic chanting of fans "Jedan je Gagi kapiten".

We got into an upward spiral, the difference was more than 10 points for us (65:53) after Milutinov’s free throw. At the end of the quarter Andrić and Victor had a wrestling fight, it brought a free throw for Volgograd (66:56), but our advantage was still two-digit.
In the final we just ran through the Russian team led by Pavlović and Mačvan.

Bezbradica played well, too

We even had a 20-point advantage (80:60), the only thing was that we took the end a bit too easy, the Volgograd team made a 5-point series at 84:65, that made the final result.

A famous and beloved guest on the tribune: former Partizan-player Saša Đordević, who is currently the trainer of the Serbian national basketball team

Slightly offtopic, but still basketball-related news that after the upsets of the last Adriatic League match Telekom Srbija, that is one of the team’s sponsors, threaten KK Partizan to quit if Duško Vujošević stays in position. Partizan’s head coach laughed them off, but Grave Diggers were not really in a funny mood. Hundreds of Partizan fans burned or tore their mt:s SIM-card and flooded the net with memes.

(photo: Facebook)

If there’s any further news, I’ll post it immediately.

(unsigned photos: Facebook/KK Partizan)