Krka grab big win over Mega Soccerbet in Novo mesto
At home in Leon Štukelj Sports Hall in Novo mesto, Krka have outgunned Mega Soccerbet and grabbed an extremely important win.
Krka team (Photo: Krka/Drago Perko/kosarka.si)
ABA League Round 20, Sunday, 7 March 2021:
KRKA - Mega Soccerbet 76:71 (23:21, 18:11, 16:20, 19:19)
Game recap: At home in Leon Štukelj Sports Hall in Novo mesto, Krka have outgunned Mega Soccerbet and grabbed an extremely important win. This is now the sixth win of the season for Krka, that have pulled away from the 13th placed Borac by two wins at the moment, which helps them to breathe a bit easier ahead of the final six rounds of the ABA League Regular Season. On the other side, it is also a big blow for Mega Soccerbet’s ambitions of reaching the Playoffs, as they have suffered their 7th defeat and they have fallen a couple of wins behind the main Playoffs contenders after 20 rounds. Their Playoffs race is not over yet, but they will need to keep on grinding and start winning big time in order to achieve their goals.
Key moments: After the visitors managed to cut the gap between the two sides to only 5 points with 10 minutes left on the game clock (57:52), it seemed like they would make it anybody’s game soon in the final quarter, but quite the opposite happened. Krka opened the final period with a 10:2 run and pulled away by 13 points (67:54) with 6 minutes to go. It turned out that Mega Soccerbet did not manage to turn the game completely upside down again, even though they did force the thrilling ending.
With 11 seconds left in the game and the score of 72:71 on the scoreboard, Filip Petrušev did have a chance to put his team in front with 2 free throws, but he missed both. On the other side, Nejc Barič got three free throws after an unsportsmanlike and technical fouls of Mega Soccerbet and scored all three. The battle for the win was over with 6 seconds left.
Man of the match: Milan Milovanović shined for Krka, as he had 16 points, 9 rebounds, 1 steal and block each and a valuation of 23 on his record as he led the Novo mesto squad to the win. He is our man of the match.
Can’t trick the stats: Mega Soccerbet have even been the better of two sides in important statistical categories, such as field goal percentage and rebounding, but their free-throw shooting was poor, as they scored only 50% of them (10/20). That’s what pushed the game Krka’s way.
Stats
Players on court
| KRK | Min | PtsP | RebsR | AssA | StS | FoulF | ValV | |
| 5 | Camphor R. | 32:38 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| 6 | Stipčević R. | 22:55 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| 7 | Vrabac A. | 10:45 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -1 |
| 9 | Barič N. | 35:45 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 13 |
| 24 | Lapornik L. | 26:47 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
| MEG | Min | PtsP | RebsR | AssA | StS | FoulF | ValV | |
| 2 | Smith D. | 22:33 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 3 | Petrušev F. | 27:21 | 31 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 29 |
| 5 | Tepić M. | 30:51 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 15 |
| 11 | Simonović M. | 37:13 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 20 | Cazalon M. | 30:46 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -1 |
Last 5 actions
| Min | Score | Action |
| game finished | ||
| end of 4. quarter | ||
| 00:03 (Q4) | 24 LAPORNIK L. rebound (defensive) | |
| 00:06 (Q4) | 10 CAZALON M. missed 3 points (jump shot) | |
| 00:07 (Q4) | 7 VRABAC A. substitution (in) | |
| 00:07 (Q4) | 14 ŠKIFIĆ J. substitution (out) |
|
Top players
| VALUE (INDEX) | ||||
| Milovanović M. | 23 | - | 29 | Petrušev F. |
| POINTS | ||||
| Milovanović M. | 16 | - | 31 | Petrušev F. |
| REBOUNDS | ||||
| Milovanović M. | 9 | - | 8 | Petrušev F. |
| ASSISTS | ||||
| Barič N. | 5 | - | 9 | Smith D. |
