Partizan NIS keep on winning
Even Cibona were not a strong enough obstacle to stop Partizan NIS’ march towards obtaining a final second place in the standings. Thanks to their excellent 3rd quarter performance, Aleksandar Džikić’s squad outscored the Zagreb squad on the road in Dražen Petrović Arena.
Novica Velickovic (Photo: Cibona/Zeljko Baksaj & Gordan Lausic)
Even Cibona were not a strong enough obstacle to stop Partizan NIS’ march towards obtaining a final second place in the standings. Thanks to their excellent 3rd quarter performance, Aleksandar Džikić’s squad outscored the Zagreb squad on the road in Dražen Petrović Arena.
ABA League Regular Season, Round 16, Friday, 30.12.2016:
Cibona – PARTIZAN NIS 77:82 (17:16, 19:22, 16:28, 25:16)
Game recap: Partizan NIS continue with their convincing performances. They remain positioned alone at the second place in the standings even after the tough away test in Zagreb against Cibona, which they have cracked in the third quarter and celebrated a victory in the end. For Cibona this is the second defeat in a row, after suffering a loss also in the 15th round, on the road in Bar. This way, Cibona are slowly losing the grip on one of the Playoffs spots in the battle with competitors such as Budućnost VOLI, Cedevita and Partizan NIS.
Key moments: After being in front by only 2 points at half time, Partizan NIS pulled away at the beginning of the second one with an 11:2 run in the opening three mintues, which gave them an 11-point advantage (49:38). This turned out to be a turning point of the game, since the home side never ever managed to fully bounce back until the end, although they did cut the gap to only four points in the finish.
Man of the match: William Hatcher was the player that carried the guests towards a new win all game long. He spent 30 minutes on court, scored 19 points, dished out 6 assists, grabbed a rebound and stole one ball. He had a game high valuation of 23 and what is the most important thing – his team went ahead by 12 points while he was on court. He is our man of the match.
Can't trick the stats: After Ante Žižić left the team it has been expected that Cibona could have some slight problems filling the gap and it became evident at the game against black and white. Partizan NIS have outrebounded them by 8 rebounds (32:24) and this in the end affected the final outcome of the game decisively.
