BC “King Szczecin” (Poland) – BC “Prometey” – 66:71 (13:19, 19:13, 18:18, 16:21)
September 12, Wroclaw (Poland), The 6th Adam Wojcik Memorial.
BC “Prometey”: Reed, Keene, Lypovyy, Voinalovych, Odiase – starting five: Sydorov (captain) Balvin, Bobrov, Tkachenko, Belikov.
With a match against the current champion of Poland BC “King Szczecin”, “Prometey” started at the representative international tournament Adam Wojcik Memorial in Polish city of Wroclaw. This year, apart from the best teams of Ukraine and Poland, two participants of the BKT EuroCup – Polish “Slask Wroclaw” and Israeli “Hapoel Tel Aviv” are participating in this tournament. According to the tournament regulations, the teams have to play two matches each. The playoffs finalists of the last Polish championship as well as “Prometey” and “Hapoel Tel Aviv”, who will oppose each other in the EuroCup group round, will not play against each other.
Unlike the matches against “Siauliai” and “Juventus”, Oleksandr Lypovyy and Andrii Voinalovych appeared on the floor in the starting five of the “titans”. They replaced Issuf Sanon and Arnoldas Kulboka, who did not arrive to Poland due to their injuries.
In the debut of the match, both teams were not very successful in offence: 2 scored points for each team in the first three minutes of the match. The hosts of the court mainly focused on offensive actions from the “Prometey’s” “paint”; as for our team, its players willingly hit from the perimeter. Unfortunately, only Marcus Keene was successful in this component in the first half of the quarter. Mrkus, like in the previous matches against Lithuanian teams, was giving his team the necessary energy.
Shortly before the first break, our captain Illia Sydorov succeeded in shots. Three (!) his straight three-pointers allowed "Prometey" to break away from the opponent by 9 points (19:10). At the beginning of the second ten-minute segment, "Prometey" was also dominating on the floor. Davon Reed supported Illia Sydorov with his productive actions, and overall, our entire team surpassed the opponent in speed and team play.
However, before the long break, our rival managed to step up its play and, at the end of the penultimate minute of the quarter, took the lead in the match back. “Prometey”, thanks to the brilliant alley-oop by Sydorov-Odiase, had a chance to leave the first half of the game for the own favour. However, Zmudski, 5 second before the siren, came to the line and succeeded in one of two foul throws – 32:32.
After a long break, “King Szczecin” completely confirmed the assumption that “Prometey” rival’s level is rising up with each match. In the third quarter, the champion of Poland broke away from the “red-and-white” by 5 points (43:38). In return, “Prometey” changed the course of the game, where the chance to win it were equal for both opponents – 50:50.
The last ten-minute segment, as well as the debut one, turned out to be poor in points. It would be beneficial for “Prometey” to try to win the second match in a row in the very end of the competitive fight. Ronen Ginzburg’s team has successfully accomplished this task! The long-range shots by Sydorov and Reed, as well as the perfect combination of Keene and Bobrov greatly contributed in this. As a result - 71:66 in favour of "Prometey".
Already tomorrow, our team will play the second match of the Adam Wojcik Memorial against the Polish "Slask".
