@ABA_League: Semi-final pairs decided by @BCFMP (@PartizanBC, #ABALiga)

In the ABA League last 22^nd round, FMP won 73 – 72 against Partizan at home court and decided about the semi-final couples: Crvena Zvezda against Partizan and Cedevita against Budućnost.

For the host, the game didn’t have any competitive motive but the tension between the opponents was highly visible and, as a result, Đorđe Gagić and Aleksandar Bursać were Disqualified after only 18 minutes of the game. Those players had a conflict and the referees decided that the game should continue without any of them.

And even though Bursać spent only 11:01 minutes on the court, he was the MVP of the match, at least by looking at the stats. The FMP player scored 11 points and he only missed one three pointer (scored 1 from 2 attempts for three). His index rating was 16.

But, the hero of the match was, definitely, Duop Reath who ended the game with 16 points and 3 rebounds for an index rating of 11. Even though the stats showed who finished the matchup as the MVP, Reath scored the crucial points for his team in the last quarter and helped them to win against The Black-Whites. The Australian player from FMP had a big help from Marko Jeremić in those moments and he added 13 points (index rating of 9). Also, Marko Radovanović stepped up with 8 points, 6 jumps and 2 assists for an index rating of 14. Their teammate Aleksa Uskoković ended the match with 15 points and 9 assists, but also 6 turnovers, for an index rating of 15.

On the other side, the best two players were Marcus Paige and Jock Landale. Both of them had the same index rating (15), but in the crucial minutes Paige was the one who was scoring, while the Australian player was outjumped and he was missing some important shots. At the end, Paige scored 13 points with 4 rebound and 4 assists, while Landale ended the match with 14 points and 3 assists. Besides these two foreign players in The Black-Whites squad, the only one who scored more than 10 points was Ognjen Jaramaz with 11 (index rating of 12).

A Solid role had Bandja Sy, who scored 5 points with 5 rebounds and 2 steals (index rating of 10). The Malian-French player had an excellent dunk during the game and probably that will be the play of the round. Alex Renfroe added 6 points, 4 jumps, 3 assist and 2 steals for an index rating of 10. Before the Disqualification, Gagić spent 7:55 minutes on the court and during those given minutes he scored 7 points and also had 2 steals.

Now, the team from Železnik finished the competition in the regional league with a win, while Partizan will continue its fight for the trophy and the spot in the EuroLeague (a more important goal than the trophy).

Their job won’t be easy, especially because their opponent in the semi-finals will be their neighbours Crvena Zvezda who finished the regular season with only one loss. The Red-Whites scored 21 victories and the last one was on the home court against Mega with a score of 100 – 76.