Union Olimpija claim their first victory in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, beat Asseco Prokom 70-62
Union Olimpija used home court advantage to perfection and edged past Poland’s Asseco Prokom 70-62 in an important game of group D. Both teams entered the game winless so it was a welcome victory for Olimpija.
Asseco have now dropped to bottom of the table and need to win their next game against Unics in order to keep their chances of reaching the top 16 alive.
Danny Green, who put up a solid performance in the loss against FC Barcelona, was the difference between two sides ending with game high 23 points including 5 for 7 from the three-point range. He was the only player from the side
who managed to end with scores in double figures. Robert Rothbart, who spent almost half the time on bench, was also impressive and added 9 points along with 8 rebounds.
Gee Alonzo marshalled Prokom with 13 points and 7 rebounds. He was assisted well by Oliver Lafayette, who ended with 12 points and 4 rebounds shooting 2 for 4 from downtown. Unfortunately, there was no other significant contribution
from any other player that led to yet another defeat for the Polish team.
Dejected with team’s performance, Prokom’s coach added
"We already lost the game in first quarter. We can't start the game like that when we play on the road. Despite the bad start, we were close for most of the game, but we never turned the game our way. I would like to congratulate
Union Olimpija for the victory; they were the better team in every aspect of the game."
Danny Green scored the first points of the game through a three-pointer in the second minute of game. Halfway through the first quarter, both teams were neck to neck at 7 all however three 3-pointers in quick succession by Olimpija’s
players suddenly changed the complexion of the quarter. By the end of the quarter, Union were leading 25-16.
Davis Bertans and Jaka Blazic struck early for the Slovenians to take the lead to 13 points however Prokom didn’t allow Union to completely run away with the show and with the help of two downtown strikes, reduced the deficit to
6 points in the last minute of first half. Aleksandar Capin drilled a three-pointer in the dying seconds of the half and extended Olimpija’s lead to 9 points but Adam Lapeta quickly came to rescue scoring through a spinning dunk to slash the deficit to 7 points,
40-33.
The third quarter proved to be three-pointer fest. Danny Green scored the first of seven three-pointers that were scored in the quarter by both teams. Prokom scored 14 points in the quarter whereas Union added another 18 and entered
the last quarter with a healthy lead of 11 points 58-47.
Last quarter was devoid of any fireworks. Union only managed to score 12 points and although Prokom scored 15, but in the end fell short by 8 points.
Tags: