We played poorly, we struggled and even referees didn’t like us.
All seemed to be fine in the beginning though. We were leading to 2:7, but Budućnost equalized (9:9). Then came a long silence.
The entire game was about this kind of long, heavy and silent battles. None of the teams could score, the ball kept on rebounding from the ring as if it was scared of that.
Barely 2 minutes were left from the first half, when Vitkovac finally threw a basket (9:11). The problem was that it woke up the Podgorica-based team (12:11). Never mind, we had Kevin Jones (12:13), while Budućnost had a free throw (14:13). At this point referees were already fed up with Vitkovac, apparently, he was fouled twice within a short time. Budućnost scored one more, the first quarter ended with 16:13.
In the second quarter we took back the lead (16:17), but it didn’t last long (21:17). The stream was dying slowly and painfully, meanwhile Partizan was struggling. From this point on Budućnost kept the game under their control. We couldn’t even equalize, not even once, we could maybe just approach them with 1-2 points (26:24).
We kept the 8-point difference (32:24), we even tried to reduce it. Marinković threw a 3-pointer (34:29), so did Budućnost, what is more, they even got a bonus shot (38:29). We again reduced the difference a bit with Murić’s 3-pointer, that was the result of the half-time as well.
These two photos perfectly summarize the match
In the third quarter we continued to struggle. For the middle of the quarter we reduced the difference from 42:34 to 42:39, but at this point referees started to shower Budućnost with free throws. The home team gained a 10-point difference (53:43), yet Partizan got their first ever free throw some time around the second part of the third quarter. It was Aranitović, who could score from that, he did so (53:45). As for Budućnost, when they happened not to score from free throw, they did it from 3-pointers. We had absolutely no antidote against them... They overstepped the 10-point difference (58:47), but still at the end of the quarter Jones demonstrated what a real buzzer beater looks like.
The last quarter was a misery. Vitkovac scored from free throw at the beginning (60:54), but for quite a long time we were totally out of order.
I don’t remember when it was the last time we had so many rebounds.
Budućnost jumped to 66:54. Even Đumić’s free throw and Murić’s scores were enough to keep us to 69:60, but here the home team made a 9-point series (78:60). We could score two more baskets (one of them was a 3-pointer by Murić), but they didn’t help us at all.
Highlights:
Budućnost: Suad Šehović (11), Jaramaz, Subotić (6), Sead Sehović (9), Čarapić, Cook (6), Ilić, Dragićević (13), Marić (14), Jenkins (14), Rikić, Kanačević (5)
KK Partizan: Cvetković (2), Aranitović (4), Jones (13), Murić (17), Marinković (6), Vitkovac (6), Đumić (7), Koprivica, Magdevski, Milutinović, Vrabac (2), Wilson (8)
League table will be brought later.
Update: current standing of the League
1. Budućnost 42 points
2. CZ 38 points
3. Cedevita 38 points
4. Mega Leks 37 points
5. Cibona 32 points
6. Zadar 32 points
7. MZT Skopje 31 points
8. Union Olimpija 31 points
9. Igokea 31 points
10. Partizan 31 points
11. Krka 31 points
12. Metalac 30 points
13. Sutjeska 29 points
14. Tajfun Šentjur 29 points
(photos: aba-liga.com)
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