MEGA CONVINCING AGAINST SPLIT

Split without a chance against Mega in the Hall of Sports!

Mega Mozzart defeated Split with 78:65 (20:12, 15:16, 22:22, 21:15) in the 11th round of the ABA League. Coach Vladimir Jovanovic’s team had the advantage in the Hall of sports Ranko Zeravica for most of the game, but they only broke the resistance of Split in the last quarter and came to a well-deserved victory.

The most efficient in the ranks of Mega were Nikola Jovic with 25 and Oleg Balcerovski with 15 points, who also had 15 rebounds. Toni Vuko stood out in the Split with 17 points.

After 11 rounds of regional competition, Mega Mozzart has a score of 5-6, while Split remained on two victories. Mega will meet Zadar in the next round on Sunday, December 19.

Before the start of the match, Mega players warmed up in T-shirts with the image of the recently deceased member of the Serbian national team and former Mega’s player Stevan Jelovac, and before the start, he was honored with a minute of silence.

Vladimir Jovanovic started the match with the following five: Smith, Djurisic, Jovic, Rudan and Matkovic. The home team started well, and Nikola Jovic was in a special mood at the start, as if he had announced his best scoring game in the ABA league. Coach Vladimir Jovanovic’s team was especially engaged in defense, they closed the racket very well, allowing the opponent to score only six points in the opening seven minutes (14:6). Perković gave Split the rhythm of the game at both ends of the field, and after the attractive moves of Cazalon and Simanic in counterattacks, Mega reached a double-digit advantage for the first time (20:10), while the result after the first quarter was 20:12.

The second quarter started with a triple by Ruzhentsev for the then maximum plus 11 for Mega (23:12). However, in those moments, Split managed to move the focus of the attack under the board, and after some missed shots by Mega, the guests managed to catch the connection with a run of 6:0 (23:18). Mega had problems with realization, although they had promising situations, especially after a good offensive jump. Split used all that in the right way and equalized with Perkovic’s triple (27:27). However, that did not disturb the Mega’s players, who continued to play patiently, starting to use the height advantage more and more in the right way, first of all, Balcerowski, so they went on a big break with a seven-point advantage (35:28).

At the end of the second quarter, Malcolm Cazalon suffered an foot injury, due to which he never returned to the floor.

During the half-time break, a half-court shooting competition was held for LCD TV, a gift from the company Tehnomanija. Unlike last time, when one of the spectators took home the TV, this time a randomly selected contestant from the audience was not precise.

Although Mega continued to control the events on the field in the third quarter, Split constantly threatened and did not allow the host to break away. The credit for that primarily belongs to the trilling Vuko – Bajo – Campara, which was cracked in that part of the game. The team from Split came close to just two points minus (48:46) with a triple by Campara, but Mega had a ready answer, which was complemented by a triple by Rudan for a nine-point lead (57:48).

In the last quarter, the burden of realization in Mega’s attack was taken over by Jovic and Balcerowski, and they did that job in a very good way and ended the match as the most efficient. Mega did not allow the Split team to jeopardize its acquired lead, primarily by controlling the rebounds they had during all 40 minutes with 51 caught balls. The first attacking option in this match Vuko was well guarded, so Mega deservedly came to a triumph.

Mega Mozzart: Balcerowski 15 (15 rebounds, index 28), Vujic, Ruzhentsev 3, Jovic 25, Rudan 6, Smith 8, Jankovic, Cerovina, Matkovic 6, Cazalon 2, Djurisic 6 (8 assists), Simanic 7.

Split: Perkovic 10, Kedzo, Runjic, Zganec 7, Vuko 17, Campara 8, Sisko, Bajo 10, Kovacevic 5, Baric 8.

Photo: Mega Mozzart/Ivica Veselinov