'How you win is secondary,' admits Slask coach Bagatskis
Slask storms back from 16 down to beat Cluj
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 3 of 18
Regular Season
group a
Slask WroclawWKS
9493
U-BT Cluj-NapocaUBT
group a
Overview
w
l
w
l
w
l
Slask Wroclaw showed some impressive resiliency in rallying from 16 points down to overcome the high-scoring U-BT Cluj-Napoca 94-93. The emotional roller-coaster at home may not have been pretty, but the only thing that matters is the W, according to head coach Ainars Bagatskis.
Slask grabbed its second victory in three games in Group A of the BKT EuroCup with a 94-93 thriller in front of the home fans at the Hala Orbita. Stefan Djordjevic paced four Slask players in double figures with 19 points to go with 8 rebounds and Noah Kirkwood totaled 15 points.
Slask managed to overcome another spectacular showing from Cluj’s Fatts Russell, who had 21 points, 7 rebounds and 15 assists.
“For us this is really important that we showed our character. We have to keep this good mood and keep up the winning,” said Djordjevic, who came off the bench and scored 10 more points than he did in Slask’s first two games.
Slask finds itself in uncharted waters in the EuroCup with a 2-1 record. In its previous three seasons in the competitions, the Polish side managed a combined 6-47 record.
“We had good energy for sure, but the quality was not so good. But as so often in professional sports, the most important thing is to win. How you win is secondary,” said Coach Bagatskis.
Slask getting to 94 points was not expected as it averaged 78.5 points coming into the game. But the league’s number one rebounding team dominated the offensive glass with 15 offensive boards, leading to a 22-6 advantage in second-chance points. That came against a Cluj team that ranked 16th in opposing team’s offensive rebounds.
And Slask also reversed its usual offensive output, shooting 55.3 percent on two pointers and 32.1% on three-pointers. Bagatskis’s men had ranked last inside the arc at 44.2% and were second best from the outside at 41.3%.
Slask could not stop Cluj’s star Russell. The whirlwind creator came into the game averaging 29.0 points, but he ended up dishing out 11 assists in the first 20 minutes. That matched the best single-game performance in the EuroCup so far this season.
And Cluj built a 10-point lead in the opening frame. Slask fought back with strong will and intensity and actually led early in the second quarter.
Russell started picking up his scoring after the break and Cluj built a 16-point lead. Slask fought back into the game again. Trailing by 15 points, the hosts went on a 19-5 surge to pull within a single point in the late stage of the third quarter. Kirkwood opened the final stanza with the first 5 points and the home side was back ahead.
Slask got a major break 63 seconds into the fourth quarter when Russell was sent to the bench with his fourth foul. The Polish side showed its grit and determination in trading blow for blow with a series of seven straight lead changes.
The game was deadlocked 86-86 when Kadre Gray stepped up with back-to-back triples in an 8-0 spurt to lead 94-86. Issuf Sanon then missed a dunk attempt for the home side and it was indicative for the final 2 minutes as Slask failed to score the rest of the way.
Luckily, Cluj twice only split free throws and Trey Woodbury decided to go for a layup with 3.1 seconds left despite his team needing a three-pointer to tie the game.
Cluj could not finish the comeback and in the end, it was Slask celebrating. Regardless of how it won the game.
