Newcomers Krka start their AdmiralBet ABA League season with an overtime win on the road

AdmiralBet ABA League Round 1, Monday, 2 October 2023:

FMP Soccerbet – KRKA 97:99 (18:27, 26:26, 24:21, 15:9, 14:16)

PHOTO GALLERY

POST-GAME COMMENTS

Story of the game: What a start to the AdmiralBet ABA League season by the newcomers to the competition – Krka have grabbed a road win in overtime over FMP Soccerbet in Belgrade! It is just the kind of a beginning to the new season, as the Novo mesto squad have hoped for and they have every reason to remain optimistic ahead of the upcoming clashes this season. On the other side, FMP Soccerbet, that finished the ABA Super Cup in the seventh place, still have plenty of work to do to assemble the newly composed squad into a well-working machine, that would be capable of achieving the kind of results that suit their ambitions.

Key moments: Krka made a 16:4 run between 3rd and 7th minute of the game, which handed them a comfortable 13-point lead (9:22) with 3 minutes left in the first quarter. With this powerful start of the match in FMP Arena, Krka made many spectators believe that their win would not be questionable this time, but FMP managed to return into the battle for a win and midway through the last quarter, the Panthers got in front (75:74) after a three-pointer by Bojan Subotić. A dramatic ending followed, where the teams entered the final minute with a tied score at 83:83 and so it remained until the final buzzer after 4 quarters, the game went to overtime.

In the overtime, the clash remained a close one all until 1:48 on the clock. That’s when Miha Škedelj scored a three-pointer to take Krka ahead 92:93, and Miha Cerkvenik added another one with 1:11 left in the extra period, to take Krka ahead by 4 points (92:96). As it turned out, these were the key moments, that pushed the AdmiralBet ABA League newcomers to the win in their first game of the season, as FMP Soccerbet did not manage to turn the game upside-down in a free-throw finish.

Man of the match: Jurij Macura has been shining all game long for Krka, as he had 23 points, 8 rebounds, 1 block, and a game-high valuation of 31 on his record. He is our man of the match!

Can’t trick the stats: Krka have been on fire when shooting from beyond the arc, as they scored 10 3-pointers out of 18 attempts (54.5%). Since the Panthers only had a 3-point shooting percentage of 29.6%, that’s what gave the Novo mesto side the win in the end.