The EuroLeague newcomers paid tribute to injured guard Nate Mason
Dubai ends Zvezda’s streak, dedicates win to injured teammate
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 10 of 38
Regular Season
Dubai BasketballDUB
10286
Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet BelgradeCZV
Overview
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In his first six EuroLeague appearances, Kenan Kamenjas scored a total of 4 points. Last week, he stepped into the playing time vacated by the injured Mfiondu Kabengele and netted 8 points. And then on Tuesday, the Bosnian big man had his coming out party.
Kamenjas erupted for 20 points and 9 rebounds to lead Dubai basketball to a convincing 102-86 victory over red-hot Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade. The victory saw Dubai improve its record to 4-6, while snapping Zvezda's seven-game winning run and knocking the Serbian squad from a share of first place in the standings.
While that should have been a moment for Kamenjas to celebrate his performance, there were only “we’s” and a tribute when he spoke to EuroLeague TV after the game: “Great victory for us against a good team,, maybe the best team at the moment. We showed good energy from the first minute and we won. We need to analyze this game and need to prepare for the game against Zalgiris on Friday.”
Kamenjas finished his remarks by dedicating the victory to teammate Nate Mason, who recently had surgery for a cervical disc injury sustained last month. And Mason was not only on the mind of Kamenjas.
"I want to say something. I don't think in my career that I ever dedicated a victory to nobody. But this is a special occasional," Coach Jurica Golemac said at the onset of his post-game press conference. "I want to dedicate this product to our teammate Nate Mason, a guy who was with us from the beginning. A wonderful human being. Great teammate, great player. He's had some problems, but we are waiting for him from here. We want him to heal and to come back with us.
"The guys played like they were playing for Nate. Great energy. Great Focus. We were doing the mistakes, but... when you have 15 offensive rebounds against a team like Red Star, when you have 24 assists, that means that you give everything. That you pass the ball to each other, then you trust to each other, and that you were fighting. So great victory."
Dubai outrebounded Zvezda 35-26, with Kamenjas leading the way and Filip Petrusev adding 7 along with 13 points and 6 assists.
Kamenjas wasn’t the only Dubai player to have his finest moment of the season on Tuesday. Aleksa Avramovic, who missed the start of the season to injury, came off the bench to score 17 points. Even more than his stats, his fighting spirit – and that of David Bertans – were big boosts for Dubai.
"Avramovic came back. A very important player for us to give rest to the other guards, you know, an experienced player like I need," Golemac said of the veteran guard before highlighting Bertans.
"I need to say thank you to Davis Bertans, who was struggling with the injury couple last days without practice. He decided to play and this is this is the spirit that is bringing the victories."
