Unicaja advance to top 16 by downing KK Zagreb 82-67: Euroleague Recap (Part 1)
The first round of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague 2011 is heading towards a close.
While the dominant teams in the league i.e. FC Barcelona Regal, CSKA Moscow , Real Madrid, Macabi Electra and defending champions Panathinaikos have already qualified for the next stage, the remaining teams are still fighting for
a place.
Just few hours ago, Unicaja booked their place in the second round by overpowering KK Zagreb 82-67 in an important game. They will be facing CSKA Moscow in their final game of the round now, which will be nothing more than a practice
for the top 16 games.
KK Zagreb on the other hand still have an outside chance, and not only need to win their last game, but wait for the results of the other games of the group to secure a place in the top 16.
Zagreb looked impressive at the start and dominated the first quarter, however as the game progressed, they ran out of gas and got erratic with their shooting. Unicaja taking advantage of this kept chipping on with points and midway
through the last frame, they were virtually into the next stage.
Zagreb’s head coach Vladimir Androic was massively disappointed after the game;
"We did not play a good game today. Our performance was not at the level of our previous games. We have to try to raise that level. There is not one part of the game that I can say was satisfying, maybe our win over Maccabi in
the Adriatic league caused that. Players looked flat and nothing functioned right, from shooting to our defense”
Only two players from Zagreb managed to end with scores in double figures.
Simon Krunoslav pounded 16 points and pulled down 7 rebounds while Josh Heytvelt accumulated 12 on 2 for 4 shooting from the downtown.
For Unicaja, Joel Freeland was the most outstanding player and marshalled the winning team with game high 17 points including 8 for 14 from inside the arc. He also forced 8 rebounds. Luka Zoric was no less with 16 points and 8
rebounds while Berni Rodriguez and Hrvoje Peric finished with 11 and 10 points respectively.
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