Huge win for Cibona over Zadar

ABA League Round 25, Saturday, 10 April 2021:

CIBONA - Zadar 77:75 (17:23, 16:13, 20:29, 24:10)

PHOTO GALLERY

Game recap: At home in Zagreb, Cibona have prevailed over Zadar and grabbed an important win, which significantly improves their chances of escaping the danger zone near the bottom of the standings, as they now hold one win more (8) in their hands than their rivals of Krka and Borac and just as many as Split and … Zadar. However, both squads still need to continue to struggle in order to avoid the 13th place at the end of the Regular Season, which leads into the ABA League Qualifiers.

Key moments: With 6 minutes left on the game clock, Zadar have been up by 8 points (64:72) and even though their key tall men Chinanu Onuaku and Domagoj Vuković have been fouled out, it seemed like they would cruise to the win this time. However, that wasn’t the case. Cibona fought back with a 10:0 run and with 2 minutes left in the game, they got in front (74:72). Jan Palokaj managed to score a three-pointer with 90 seconds remaining, but Roko Prkačin stepped up for Cibona to score the key points with a putback dunk half a minute before the end. Zadar did not manage to score anymore and Cibona celebrated the win.

Man of the match: Zadar-born Ivan Novačić was the one to shine for Cibona this time, as he led his team in scoring with 23 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and a valuation of 19. He is our man of the match!

Can’t trick the stats: Just as the final score suggests, there haven’t been any major statistical differences between the two squads and the game could clearly have gone either way.