Cedevita has given up just 64 points per game in its two home wins
Cedevita sends defensive statement in 80-59 victory over Aris
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 3 of 18
Regular Season
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Cedevita Olimpija LjubljanaCOL
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Aris Thessaloniki BetssonARI
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Overview
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Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana bagged an important early victory atop Group A of the BKT EuroCup in beating Aris Thessaloniki Betsson at home with a strong defensive statement.
In a battle of undefeated teams, Cedevita shut down Aris with an 80-59 win to improve to 3-0. While even Cedevita head coach Zvezdan Mitrovic said the final result was a bit deceiving in terms of how tight the game felt, he loved the second number of the scoreline.
“They were a team who scored an average of 90 points (91.5) through two games and today they had 59. That was really good,” said the coach. "Maybe the difference was bigger than it should have been, but this is the reward for our great defensive effort.”
Aris shot over 60 percent on two-pointers and over 35% on three-pointers in both of its first two games. But Bogdan Karaicic’s team connected on only 44 and 33%, respectively in the Slovenian capital. And after launching 50 three-pointers in the first two games, Aris attempted only 12 against Cedevita, making four of them. Many of those came as Aris tried to come back from a 16-point third-quarter deficit.
Cedevita got a big break early in the second half when Aris’s star guard Bryce Jones picked up his third and fourth fouls within 42 seconds of the first minute of the third quarter. Jones ended up not coming back until 8 minutes left in the game and couldn’t turn the game around before fouling out. Jones finished with 6 points, 1 rebound and 3 assists in less than 20 minutes - well below his averages of 21 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists coming into the game.
Mitrovic, meanwhile, has to be happy about his team coming through with DJ Stewart having another pedestrian game of 9 points and 7 rebounds - down from the 27-point, 8-rebound and 5-assist outburst in Round 2.
Umoja Gibson looked for some time as if he would set a new personal scoring mark with 19 points early in the third quarter. But he remained on those 19 points the rest of the game. Aleksej Nikolic was reported to have health issues, but he fought through them with 15 points.
But Cedevita got a boost off the bench from their sharpshooter Joseph Girard, who hit 4 three-pointers for 16 points - 2 fewer than his total output from the first two games.
Even 35-year-old veteran Jaka Blazic gave some strong production with 6 points and 5 assists in 16 minutes, which saw him move past Jamar Smith and into fifth place on the EuroCup's all-time scoring charts with 1,399 career points. Blazic had only collected 6 points and 1 assist so far this campaign.
Put it all together and Cedevita is really happy to have grabbed this victory. It’s a statement that the Slovenian side can win with defense too - having conceded only 69 points in a Round 1 home win over BAXI Manresa.
“It was very big, very big. We had a chance to go 3-0 in the EuroCup. It’s a wonderful feeling. I am excited about it,” said Gibson.
Another reason why it is big is because of the aforementioned final score. A 21-point victory could go a long way in securing Cedevita a better spot in the final rankings after the Regular Season if the team could get into a tie with Aris.
Sure, that is a long road from now, but the first stones in the road are being laid.
