The Slovenian outfit dominated in all departments and demolished its rival in the second half
Cedevita Olimpija runs riot to overwhelm hapless Reyer
Report partita
3 Minuto di lettura
Regular Season
Round 7 of 18
Regular Season
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Cedevita Olimpija LjubljanaCOL
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Umana Reyer VeniceURV
group a
Overview
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Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana produced arguably its best BKT EuroCup performance of the season as the hosts grabbed an astounding 50 rebounds, 19 of them on the offensive end, in a 93-65 rout of Umana Reyer Venice on Wednesday.
Cedevita improved to 5-2 and stayed in the hunt for the top spot in Group A while Reyer dropped to 3-4 and finds itself sandwiched among a cluster of teams with an identical record.
The Slovenian team enjoyed a massive second half after grinding out a 42-37 lead at the interval, blowing Reyer away in the paint with Thomas Kennedy claiming the player of the game accolade on 14 points and 8 boards in just 17:23 minutes on the court.
Kennedy was one of six Cedevita players to finish in double figures, with Umoja Gibson pacing the home team on 15 points as he netted all of them in a closely contested first half.
David Skara and veteran Jaka Blazic posted 13 points each, DJ Stewart added 11 and Aleksej Nikolic chipped in with 10 to underline a cohesive team effort which left Reyer reeling after the break.
Kennedy acknowledged that Cedevita’s airtight defense made the difference after Reyer led 25-30 early in the second quarter.
“We like to bring the energy in front of our home crowd and we played good defense throughout,” the Irish big man said in his post-game comments. “We had a big third quarter and then held them off in the fourth. It’s a big win for us as it means we keep going forward towards the top of the table.”
Gibson got going in the first half as he bedazzled his markers with unstoppable drives to the basket and also drained a treble of three-pointers, as Reyer failed to contain the livewire guard.
Nikolic, in turn, pulled all the playmaking strings and the writing was on the wall for Reyer early in the second half as Cedevita went on a 12-1 run to open up a 57-44 lead and never looked back.
The advantage only got bigger as the hosts kept their feet on the gas, leaving head coach Zvezdan Mitrovic purring with delight after the final buzzer.
“The guys played great defense and we capitalized on Reyer playing two games in the last four days,” the Montenegrin tactician said. “An excellent effort from my team and I am very happy with the win.”
The defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for Mitrovic’s Croatian counterpart Neven Spahija, who made no excuse for his team’s meltdown as Stefan Nikolic was the only visiting player in double figures after netting 13 points.
Reyer also committed 15 turnovers against a mere 12 assists, shooting a miserable 5-of-23 from downtown while collecting a modest 28 boards, just over half as much as Cedevita. “I thought we were soft and devoid of energy in the first half but the second half was even worse,” Spahija said. “We can only congratulate Olimpija for their emphatic win and get back home to work.”
