TENERIFE BETTER THAT MEGA FOR THE END OF EUROPEAN STORY

Players of Mega Leks in the last 14th round of the Basketball Champions League suffered defeat from Tenerife with 73:98 (19:24, 15:27, 16:27, 23:20). The leader of the group D of the Champions League and tcurrently second placed in the Spanish ACB league was still too strong for protégés of Dejan Milojevic, and the visitors to the key advantage came with a series of points in the second quarter when they split to the plus 17. Thereafter, Mega has not fully succeeded to endanger the victory of the Spanish team, and in the end missed a place in the FIBA European Cup since only victory led Mega Leks to this European competition.

Coach of Mega in this match could not count on the last backup Predrag Samardziski, and because of injuries were prevented from playing Radovan Djokovic, Stefan Glogovac and Ognjen Carapic, while due to a stomach virus match skipped Jovan Novak.

The most efficient in the ranks of Mega Leks were Rade Zagorac with 16 points and Alpha Kaba with 13 points and 16 rebounds. Kaba finished the group stage of the Basketball Champions League as second rebounder of the competition with an average of 9.8 rebounds per game. In Tenerife the best were Devin White and Marius Grigonis, both with 15 points. Mega Leks ended competition in Group D in 7th place with 4 triumphs while Tenerife finished first-ranked with a score of 11-3. Next match Mega Leks have on Saturday from 17:00 when within 20th round of ABA league will play in Skopje against MZT.

Dejan Milojevic started the match with following five: Jaramaz, Zagorac, Simeunovic, Cancar and Kaba. Mega begins match good with a series of 8:2, with lay-up of Cancar, three pointer of  Kaba and Simeunovic’s plus one. Tenerife responded with points from a distance and managed to take the lead, 12:17. Guests continued to hit three but Spasojevic not allowed them off the hook as the first quarter ended with 19:24.

The visitors opened the second quarter with a series of 0:7 which interrupted Jaramaz with a dunk with two hands. There was a period with good defense whre Mega after three pointer of Jaramaz and lay-up of Kapetanovic, Mega reduced to 28:36. The visitors replied new series of points and manage to come off again in results, the first half ended with 34:51.

In the third quarter Mega didn’t get many baskets in. Zagorac with several points and Spasojevic with three, managed to reduce the minus 14, but guest once again played out in the attack, so the result before last quarter was 50:78.

In the last 10 minutes there was no doubt about the winner,some players with less playing time get the chance, among which stood out Nemanja Kapetanovic. At the end Mega managed little to reduce defeat for the final 73:98.

Mega Leks: Mushidi 2, Rebic 5, Jaramaz 9 (8 assists), Spasojevic 9, Kaba 13 (16 rebounds), Zagorac 16 (7 rebounds), Cancar 4, Simeunovic 5, Tejic, Kapetanovic 9, Marelja 1.

Iberostar Tenerife: San Miguel 7, Niang 6, Bassas 9, Hanley 5, Grigonis 15, Vasquez 11, Abromaitis 9, Bogris 5, White 15, Doornekamp 11, Pinero 6.

Photo: Mega Leks/Ivica Veselinov