MEGA MIS WITH 101 AGAINST ZADAR FOR THE 5TH PLACE AT ABA SUPER CUP

Mega MIS with an excellent game against Zadar to 5th place at the ABA Super Cup in Podgorica.

Mega MIS after an outstanding game and more than convincingly defeated Zadar with 78:101 (13:21, 18:27, 22:30, 25:23) in the ABA Super Cup match for 5th place. Coach Marko Barac’s  team successfully completed the ABA Super Cup with two convincing victories against Cedevita Olimpija and Zadar and a defeat against the current champion Partizan in a game in which they were close for the most part.

The most effective in the ranks of Mega MIS were Nikola Topic with 27 points and Stefan Miljenovic with 22. In Zadar, Arijan Lakic stood out with 17 points.

Before the start of the ABA League, Mega MIS will play one more control game on September 23 against Tamis, and in the first round of the ABA League, they will host Cedevita Olimpija in Ljubljana on September 30 at 6 p.m.

Mega opens the game brilliantly with 0:9 where they completely closed the paint for Zadar players and forced them to take hard shots for three points. The intensity of the game did not decrease, the advantage of Mega grew to 13 points despite several missed free throws. At the end of the quarter, Zadar managed to connect the lines as much as possible and reduce the difference to 8 points, in 13:21 at the end of the first quarter.

Miljenovic and Jelavic furiously open the second quarter and Mega reaches plus 15, 16:31. Zadar manages to get points from difficult positions, but on the other side, Topic tied nine of them in a short period, so the advantage continues to grow minute by minute, to the largest plus 21 two minutes before the end of the half. In the remaining time, Zadar manages to reduce the difference, so the score at halftime is 31:48.

With five three-pointers in five minutes of play in the third quarter, Mega goes to plus 23 and definitely turns the game in their favor. With the miniatures of Jovic and Kobzystyi, Mega ends the third quarter with a convincing 53:78. In the last quarter, Mega had a maximum advantage of 31 points before Miljenovic set the final score from the free throw line, 78:101.

At the press conference after the game, Mega MIS coach Marko Barac said that his team used the entire tournament in the best possible way:

– I would like to congratulate the players for their great effort that made them look this good today, above all defensively they fulfilled almost all the tasks that were set before them. From that good and aggressive defense, we came to the game that we want to play on the open field. A lot of counter attacks, a lot of advantage created in the early phase of the attack. On the other hand, I congratulate the opponent for the way they played all these days. They came here without probably their best player, however, that team always plays at a very high intensity with good running and the game against them is always very demanding. Before the game itself, I suggested to my players that in this sport the last impression is the only thing that matters, it seems to me that they understood that and that after this game they did not spoil any comprehensive impression that we left here in these three days. Only now is the most important thing starting, we have ten days left to continue training well, to get ready for the first round. We used the whole tournament in the best possible way, we felt very comfortable here in Podgorica, all the matches were very good. I hope and we would like to see you all at a Super Cup next year as well.

Zadar: Klarica 9, Sikirić 2, Zganec 5, Mazalin 11, Njegovan 9, Lakic 17, Mekic 7, Jambrovic 5, Grbic, Ramljak 13.

Mega MIS: Paunovic, Miljenovic 22, Jelavic 15 (10 reb), Kobzystyi 7, Milutinovic, Djurisic 6, Kovacevic 4, Plavsic 4 (6 reb), Jovic 13, Topic 27 (4 stl, PIR 31), Malovec 3.

Photo: ABA League/Dragana Stjepanovic