© Sportreport
With an incredible final quarter, the Unger Steel Gunners Oberwart turn the game against the OCS Swans Gmunden and still win with 84:81.
The previous table leader has the game under control, but completely loses the thread and has to admit defeat. In the Lower Austria derby, SKN St. Pölten Basketball confidently prevailed against BK IMMOunited Dukes and had no problems with the 87:66 victory.
The Vienna DC Timberwolves challenged the favorites UBSC Raiffeisen Graz to the last second, but the wolves’ last throw didn’t find its way into the basket and the Styrians won 69:68.
OCS Swans Gmunden vs Unger Steel Gunners Oberwart
81:84 (29:25; 55:48; 71:61)
Thursday, 7 p.m. – Raiffeisen Sportpark Gmunden
The top game kept what it promised, the lead changed no fewer than twelve times in the first quarter. In the end, the Swans pulled away by a few points for the first time and maintained this lead until the break. In the second half of the game, the Upper Austrians continuously increased their lead and with the score of 67:54 only a few believed in a turnaround in this game. The Gunners got the upper hand and fought their way back into the game point by point. The Gmundner got bogged down in individual actions, made individual mistakes and coach Mirolybov had to pull the timeout emergency brake. This didn’t help much, however, and three minutes before the end the Burgenlanders were back to two points behind the Swans. A total of six attacks then came to nothing before Gardner put Oberwarter ahead with a three. Then came the battle of nerves at the free-throw line, which Oberwarter narrowly won at the end with 84:81.
Daniel Köppel, Swans player: “I think we lost the ball too much, shot ourselves in the foot and deservedly won Oberwart.”
Dominic Green, Swans player: “We didn’t execute our game plan and they won the game because of our mistakes. We have to come back next game and be ready on Saturday.”
Edi Patekar, Gunners player: “I think we did what we set out to do today. We did that the whole match even when we were behind and we kept our focus in the difficult parts and executed until the end.”
Sebastian Käferle, Gunners player: “Congratulations to Gmunden, they made it extremely difficult for us today. But we wanted to go through the whole game, never give up and in the second half you could see that we strengthened our defense and in the end we got the game going.”
Best pitchers: Friedrich 20, King 13, Blazan 12 or Howard 26, Hanes 17, Gardner 13
SKN St. Pölten Basketball vs. BK IMMOunited Dukes
87:66 (17:10; 40:28; 62:55)
Thursday, 7 p.m. – Raiffeisen Sportpark, Gmunden
From the start, the St. Pöltners took command of the game and were superior, especially under the basket. The Dukes’ defense was always full of holes and simply allowed the opponent to score points. The hosts took advantage of an 11:2 run in the middle of the second quarter, took a double-digit lead and deservedly led at the break. In the second half, the Dukes got into the game better and reduced the gap to up to four points. When the game threatened to tip over, the SKN increased the pressure again and hit five three-pointers within three minutes. That was enough for the provincial capitals to an unchallenged and deserved 87:66 victory.
Mike Coffin, Coach SKN: “After the good start, we gave the game a little out of hand, had a lot of ups and downs today, but in the end the win was deserved.”
Chris Ferguson, SKN player: “Our turnovers were the problem, but we believed in our defense and played very well together. We were always positive and in the end that was enough to win.”
Kevin Bracy-Davies, Dukes player: “We wanted to come out and perform, but we didn’t do that in the first half. They played a lot more aggressively and we failed to counter that.”
Jakob Wonisch, Dukes player: “We are close to each other in the top 6 and wanted to show today that we should be in front of St. Pölten. We didn’t manage that, we weren’t alert enough and that’s how you get lost with 21 points.”
Best throwers: Mbemba 15, Jagsch 14, Dukic and Holton Jr. 12 each and Bracy-Davies 20, Raboniwitz 12, Miletic 9
BK IMMOunited Dukes are clearly defeated in the Lower Austria derby
After the spectacular overtime win in Klosterneuburg, the BK IMMOunited Dukes have no chance in the second leg in St. Pölten and have to admit defeat.
The St. Pölten team got into the game a bit better than the Klosterneuburg team and made it 11:5 after just under five minutes. The Dukes quickly fought back with a 5-0 run, but they couldn’t get into a real offensive rhythm. Several substitutions didn’t help. So the hosts won the first quarter with 17:10.
Thanks to Predrag Miletic, Klosterneuburg reduced the deficit to two points at the beginning of the second period and quickly forced St. Pölten to call a time-out. From then on, the provincial capitals took over the command again and pulled away to 40:28 until the half-time break.
Even after a change of sides, the Dukes’ offensive engine didn’t get going and the St. Pöltners kept the gap relatively constant. From the middle of the quarter, the Klosterneuburg team then scored better and shortened to 55:62 until the siren.
Shortly after the beginning of the final period, the Dukes came closer, after three minutes it was only 61:65. The timeout that followed was a wake-up call for St. Pölten, who quickly opened up a large gap. In the case of the Klosterneuburgers, it then seemed as if the air was outside. So the St. Pölten team had no problems maintaining the lead they had now played out over time.
Vienna DC Timberwolves vs. UBSC Raiffeisen Graz
68:69 (16:15; 32:34; 58:51)
Thursday, 7 p.m. – Steigenteschgasse, Vienna
The spectators saw an entertaining game, both teams managed to equalize the opponent’s lead with mini-runs, the wolves converted the last attack to a razor-thin 16:15 after ten minutes. In the course of the second half of the game, however, the Grazers continued to pull away and forced the Viennese to a timeout. This stopped the Styrians’ run and the hosts came back to two points before the break. The wolves were now setting the tone and used a weak phase in Graz to take a 7-point lead before the final section. Then the favorite showed his true face again, put a lot of pressure on the Viennese and also hit difficult throws safely. The end was not for the faint of heart, both teams missed the last throws and Graz won happily with 69:68.
Hubert Schmidt, Coach Timberwolves: “We didn’t do much wrong today. In the end, the difference was that Graz hit a few difficult shots and we didn’t hit our shots due to our defensive efforts. Nevertheless, we can be very satisfied.”
Jakob Szkutta, Timberwolves player: “We played solidly in the first half, with room for improvement. In the second half we controlled the game for a long time and worked well defensively. We made simple mistakes in the final section, Graz came back and unfortunately we didn’t have luck on our side in the end.”
Ervin Dragsic, Coach Graz: “I congratulate my team. It was very difficult today and it wouldn’t be undeserved if the Timberwolves had won today. We completely slept through the third quarter, but we came back on the defensive and, with a lot of luck, we won in the end.”
Paul Isbetcherian, Graz player: “We started the game reasonably well, but then lost the thread of defense. We stopped defending in the third quarter and were rightly behind. In the final section we showed again what we can do and we narrowly but deservedly won.”
Best pitchers: Vogt 17, Lohr 13, D’angelo 12 or Cooks 23, Vann Jr. 17, Giddings 14 (11 Rebs)
Presseinfo
Basketball Austria
BSL
BK IMMOunited Duke
30.03.2023
