Great win for Black and Whites in another @ABA_League classic

Partizan NIS won against Cibona 80 – 69 in Round 17 of ABA League in a full “Aleksandar Nikolić” Sports Hall.

Both teams played tough game, and guest from Croatia were an equal opponent during 30 minutes of the game, but in the last quarter Partizan managed to brake Cibona’s offense and win the game.

Player of the game was definitely Novica Veličković. Partizan’s captain had 23 points, 12 rebounds 3 assists and 1 steal for total index value of 36. Only other Black and Whites player with double digits score was Nigel Williams-Goss, who finished the match with 13 points and 8 assists.

In Cibona Marko Tomas scored 22 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. For those who were following Tomas’ career this wasn’t surprise at all. It was well-known that Croatian player was always motivated in the game against Partizan, and this time wasn’t any difference. His teammate Luka Žorić finished the game with 15 points and 7 rebounds, while Branislav Ratkovica, ex Partizan player, added 12 points and 6 assists.

Starting five for Black and Whites were Williams-Goss, Aranitović, Gavrilović, Veličković and Gagić while Cibona’s players who started the game were Ratkovica, Tomas, Bošnjak, Rozić and Žorić.

Guest from Zagreb didn’t score anything during first 4 minutes and first points were made by Ratkovica (3 points), while Partizan managed to score 10 points. Soon after, guest scored 5 points in a row and got back in the game. In the remaining minutes of the first quarter both teams played well in offense and in the end score was 17 – 17.

It was a tied game during the second quarter, both teams played solid basketball, but somehow in the end of the first half Cibona managed to take the lead and finished the second quarter with 3 points lead (40 – 43).

After first half the best scorer in Cibona was Marko Tomas with 16 points. Luka Zorić added 12, same as Novica Veličković for Partizan.

The beginning of the second half announced the tied game between two well-known opponents and third quarter was finished with 2 points lead (61 – 59) for Black and Whites.

Last part of the game, home team opened in the same style as the first quarter. So after little more than 4 minutes Black and Whites were leading by 11 (72 – 61). Only different than in the first part of the game was the fact that Partizan didn’t let Cibona to get back in the game again. Team from Belgrade scored another victory with a result 80 – 69.

After the game, the best scorer in Cibona, Marko Tomas, congratulated Partizan on deserved victory.

“First of all I would like to congratulate Partizan on deserved victory. My team played well for 30 minutes but in the last quarter we allowed our opponent to jump in offense and to score after those rebounds. I didn’t watch statistics so I am not sure how many rebounds they had but that was the main reason they won. In those moments we lost our confidence and we missed some important free point shots, but I hope that in the future, in important matches our best game is yet to come”, said Tomas.