06.10.2010

Bader Fires Szolnoki Olaj Past Keravnos

A near perfect shooting performance by forward Marton Bader helped Szolnoki Olaj cruise into the EuroChallenge regular season and follow up their demolition of Keravnos in game one with a 67-56 road win in Cyprus.

The Hungarian club already had one foot in the door when they took to the floor in Nicosia after routing their opponents 75-52 in the first leg and they again put the defensive squeeze on their opponents.

Most impressive of all however was the offensive display of Bader. Only one missed free-throw stopped him from having a flawless night.

He finished with 25 points in just 26 minutes making seven of seven from the floor and 11 of 12 from the line.

Defensively it was Ivory Clark who kept his team in control with some super work on the glass. He finished with 11 defensive rebounds to his name to ensure second chance points were rare for the home team. They again lacked any serious firepower and could only muster 9 final quarter points.

It wasn't all plain sailing for the visitors and Head Coach Peter Por might be slightly less than impressed with the 22 turnovers his team spilled during the game.

Nevertheless, they romped home by a massive 34 points on aggregate.

 

06.10.2010

Quotes Keravnos vs. Szolnoki Olaj

Memos Ioannou, Keravnos Nicosia coach:
"Congratulations to Szolnoki. This round was already finished from the first leg. We tried at the beginning of tonight's game to play better. It did not work out at the start of the game but as the game progressed we improved, especially in the second quarter when we built a lead of nine points. However we did not succeed to achieve consistency and the 'ups' and 'downs' in our performance allowed Szolnoki to recover and then take the lead. This was mainly due to the psychology of our players. We wish the best of luck to Szolnoki in their games in the Group stage."

Miladin Pekovic, Keravnos Nicosia player:
"Congratulations to Szolnoki for their qualification to the next round. It is difficult for any team to come back and win after such a point difference in the first game. We tried to change some things over the week. We tried to play harder, to improve our pick-n-roll and follow our Coach's instructions. The Hungarian Team is a very good team, they played very good defense and they were solid. We did try to come back form the first game loss and only managed to succeed in part during the second quarter. Again, congratulations to the Hungarian team and our best wishes for their games in the Groups."

Peter Por, Szolnoki Olaj coach:
"I do appreciate the good wishes from the Coach and player of Keravnos. We knew that our advantage from the first leg was important. I told our players that we had to start very strong and not allow Keravnos to have a good start in the game. We succeeded with this but Keravnos managed to balance the game and take the lead in the second quarter. After that we improved our game, especially on defense, managed to get into the game, take the lead and win."

Marton Bader, Szolnoki Olaj player:
"We played exactly as our coach said. We are strong mentally, we practice very hard and we have very professional players. Our deference is improving all the time and its is our strong point. We win games because of our defense and not our offence."