Reigning Cypriot champions defeated in Croatia

KRUNOSLAV Simon netted 17 points to help KK Zagreb see off Proteas EKA AEL 82-77 in the third game of the FIBA EuroCup Qualifying Round Group C on Tuesday night in Croatia.

The Croatian side’s recently appointed coach Zeljko Pavlicevic was pleased with his perfect start in the EuroCup: ““Congratulation to my players. This is a very important win for us. We were a better team for 37 minutes but in the last three minutes I gave a chance to the younger players because the difference wasn’t important for us since it was not possible to win over 23.”

The hosts were well on their way to victory as they had a 41-32 advantage going to the half-time break, and then they gradually started to pull away in the third as Nikola Garma made a jumper to open up a 68-48 lead with 30 seconds left on the clock. The Cypriot champions never gave up and did manage to make the scoreline more respectable, pulling back to within 81-77 with two seconds remaining to play

Charles Barton was disappointed with his team’s performance: “Zagreb played much better and their win is deserved. We played so bad and we didn’t have any chances to get a better result today.”

Ante Tomic had a double-double for KK Zagreb with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Jakov Vladovic also finished the game with 14 points: “We played a very good game for about 37 minutes. We had big problems in the last three minutes because we waited to finish the game.”

“We would like to win over 23 points but when we see that is not possible we just waited for the game to be over,” he added.

Karim Souchu led Proteas EKA AEL with 13 points, while Ryan Randle, Milutin Aleksic and Bruno Sundov each had 12. Aleksic dished out a game-high 10 assists, while Sundov hailed down 11 boards.

“Zagreb was the better team today. There are no complaints about their victory. We played bad,” said Sundov after the game.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.