Zielona Gora beat Avtodor at home – 77:64 (13:13, 27:15, 18:18, 19:18).
Top scorers
Zielona Gora: Rolands Freimanis (21 + 7 rebounds), Geoffrey Groselle (13 +7 rebounds), Kris Richard (11 + 6 rebounds).
Avtodor: Markel Starks (21), Gian Clavell (12), Zeljko Sakic (11 + 6 rebounds).
Story
The teams were approaching this game in different mood. The hosts took 4 wins in last 5 games. NN won only once in past month. The intrigue was also was in the fact that the team that won were 6th.
The teams were struggling in the beginning. Slow tempo and aggressive defense from both sides caused low scoring. In the first quarter both teams scored only 13 points – 13:13. The hosts woke up first. The found their shot and it brought the result. Rolands Freimanis, Janis Berzins and Cecil Williams threes started Zielona Gora run, and by the half time Gora had a double digit lead – 40:28. The third quarter was even. Saratov via their American foreigners were trying to start a comeback but they weren’t closer than 7 points behind. However, the hosts took the comfortable lead back – 58:46.
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— VTB League (@VTBUL) January 23, 2021
Key moment
The fourth started with hosts’ 5-point run. That set the way the fourth quarter went. In Saratov roster there was no leader. Meanwhile, the hosts had hot bigs, Rolands Freimanis and Geoffrey Groselle. By the middle of the quarter the Poles’ lead were bigger than 20 points – 73:52. The game was decided. In the remaining time Volga just cut the gap a little.
Via this victory Zielona Gora are now 6th.
Hero
Rolands Freimanis had a big game. The Latvian was the most active player of the hosts and became the top scorer of the game (21 points) collecting 6 offensive rebounds.
Stat
64 – the number of points Avtodor could have scored. Zielona Gora showed best defense this season.
Comments
Zielona Gora head coach Zan Tabak:
– That was a tough one. I like this type of games. I thought we were a good three-point shooting team but we only hit 28% of our long range shots but still won. We took 20 offensive rebounds, it says a lot about the game and effort.
Avtodor head coach Gordie Herbert:
– At first, congratulations to Zielona Gora on the well-deserved victory. Their defense was extraordinary, they forced lots of turnovers and collected 20 offensive rebounds, that’s the story of the game.
Next
Zielona Gora: January 29 @ Kalev
Avtodor: January 31 @ Astana
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