Bojovic, Kosice Stun Gospic On The Road

Good Angels Kosice clinched their second straight win in the EuroLeague Women and got another outstanding performance from Miljana Bojovic in the process on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old poured in a career-high 22 points while Lucia Kupcikova weighed in with 19 and Danielle McCray 16 as the Slovakian outfit won 91-76 at Gospic Croatia.

Stefan Svitek's team, which lost veteran guard Zuzana Zirková before the season to injury, are coping well.

They improved to 2-1 in Group C while Gospic fell to 1-2.

Bojovic, a Serbia international, started the campaign with just five points in a defeat to Wisla Can-Pack Krakow but she followed with 18 against Rivas and now has surpassed even that.

At Gospic, she hit all three of her shots from long range and was eight of 12 from the floor overall.

Good Angels went in front to stay at the end of the first quarter at 27-25 when Kayla Pedersen hit a three-pointer.

Julie McBride had 10 points in the opening frame for the hosts.

Twice Bojovic hit jumpers in the second quarter that kept the visitors in the ascendancy.

After having their lead reduced to 43-39 following a jump shot by Marija Vrsaljko, Bojovic buried a shot from the arc.

Then after Jelena Ivezic hit a jumper to cut the Good Angels advantage to 46-41, Bojovic struck with a shot from inside the arc.

Bojovic had 14 points at half-time, with McBride's 17 leading all scorers at the break.

When Bojovic buried a jumper nearly four minutes into the third quarter, the Kosice lead was 60-47.

But Sandra Mandir, the Croatia national team captain, replied with a three-ball to start a 9-0 run that closed the gap to 60-56.

They pulled to within 65-63 on a basket by Kalisha Keane, yet Bojovic had the answer with another shot to take the lead back to 67-63.

Twice early in the fourth quarter, the home side reduced the arrears to just four points but Good Angels stayed in front and eventually pulled away for a 15-point triumph.

Good Angels out-rebounded Gospic 46-32 and also forced the home side into 20 turnovers.

Coming up with a team-high five of Kosice's 14 steals was who else but Bojovic.

McBride also finished with 22 points in defeat.

Quotes Gospic CO vs. Good Angels Kosice

Maros Kovacik (Assistant Coach Good Angels Kosice): 
"In the first half of the game, we played a very strong defense.  That is the main reason why we won the game.  It is always like that in basketball." 

Miljana Bojović (Good Angels Kosice):
"I want to congratulate the team of Gospic for a correct and fair game.  I am happy that we won and I'm glad that we won on the road in front of a lot of fans.  I am proud of our players for they did their job to the fullest and this is what brought us the win.  The win will increase our self-confidence for the coming games.  I hope that the Gospic team will also find somestrength for the future games. We are especially happy that we beat Gospic, who are also a candidate to go through from the group."

Stipe Bralić (Head Coach Gospić CO):
"The visiting team completely deserved this win.  They dominated the game from the beginning to the end.  They dominated us physically. They had 24 offensive boards and I have never come across this in my career.  We also tried our best.  A few times we came close, but never managed to go over.  We didn't shoot as well as them.  We weren't even able to make baskets from areas where we normally score.  The visiting team had a strong inside game and a 60% average of 3 point shots and we weren't able to compete with this."

Sena Pavetić (Gospić CO):
"We made a lot of mistakes in defense and I think that this was the key to losing the game.  We also didn't have any luck with our shooting.  I congratulate our opponents who dominated the entire game and deserved victory."