The air is slowly becoming thin for the Raiffeisen Flyers Wels. The reigning Basketball Cup champion has his back to the wall following the 69:76 (26:37) defeat in Graz. In the best-of-5 series, the Messestadt team, who fell behind 0-2, now need three wins in a row to still make it into the play-off semi-finals. The start of the race to catch up should be successful on Thursday (7 p.m.) with home advantage. But this requires more “target water” – especially from a distance. Yesterday only five of 21 three-point attempts found the opposing net.
In return, Styrian league top scorer Zach Cooks, who was eligible to play despite being hit with an elbow in the first duel on Saturday, was in top form. The American was the top scorer with 26 points in front of 1035 visitors, outdoing his counterpart Terrell Allen (16). Nevertheless, it’s not over for the Welsers, who can cling to a strong fourth quarter (26:17). We need to build on this.
The master weakened
The OCS Swans Gmunden also need to improve, having to admit defeat 76:82 (34:48) in front of 600 eyewitnesses in Oberwart due to a weak second quarter (19:31).
This means the series is even and the champions are under pressure on Thursday (7 p.m.) in the Raiffeisen Sports Park above Lake Traunsee. “I see so many things that we need to improve,” says Gmunden’s US legionnaire Trey Moses self-critically. Managing director Richard Poiger shows great respect for the Gunners, who started the knockout phase with eleven wins: “Oberwart has proven that they can keep up well. We knew it would be a difficult task. ” Not least because the OCS Swans were unable to sign another legionnaire during the season for financial reasons.
The squad is still good, but there are always misfires. This was also the case in Oberwart, where the tide seemed to turn following a hearty break speech from coach Anton Mirolybov. The Swans came within 52:53 (26th). But the Gunners, despite foul problems (especially captain Sebastian Käferle), didn’t let their courage get the better of them.
Klosterneuburg leads 2-0 following a 90:76 win in Kapfenberg, Traiskirchen made it 1-1 with an 80:61 win in St. Pölten.
ePaper
Author
Alexander Zambarloukos
Sports editor
Alexander Zambarloukos
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