BARAĆ: ‘BIG DIFFERENCE IN ENERGY AT THE BEGINNING AND END, CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GUYS FOR THE SECOND HALF, WE CONTINUE TO TRAIN’

Mega MIS basketball team kicked off the new season in the ABA League with one of the toughest away games. Despite an excellent performance in the second half, they were unable to defeat Cedevita Olimpija in Ljubljana, losing 89:87 (31:21, 31:21, 20:25, 7:20). Coach Marko Barać shared his impressions after the premiere of the new ABA League season:

‘I hope it was an interesting game, as they often used to be in the past between Cedevita and Mega. I would like to congratulate Cedevita on their well-deserved victory. They took the game we had in Podgorica as a warning, and we expected that. We warned that we would face a different match, and we prepared for it. It is evident that the fact that over 50% of our team played their first minutes in the ABA League tonight affected our understanding of how to respond properly. The result of this was Cedevita’s incredible shooting percentages in the first half. When we played in the second half the way this team should play, raising the level of aggressiveness and energy, we contributed to normalizing those percentages. We were coming back step by step, trying several times to reduce the lead, came within single digits, and then brought the game to a tie. I can congratulate the guys on how they looked in the second half. There was a significant difference in energy at the beginning and end of the game. We’ll see what the reason is for that besides inexperience. We came down to one possession, from an action we’ve practiced a lot to the shot we wanted. This time, the shot for victory didn’t go in, but I take responsibility for all the misses of my players when they ran out the way they did in the second half. We will continue to train, and I am sure that these shots will start going in, in the future. Good luck to Cedevita Olimpija in the upcoming games,’ said Barać.

In the second round of the ABA League, Mega MIS will host Borac Mozzart from Čačak. The match is scheduled for Friday, October 6th, at 8:00 PM in the Ranko Žeravica Sports Hall with free admission.

Photo: Cedevita Olimpija/Aleš Fevžer