With a bravely fought 82:66 (38:38) victory against the Flyers Wels, the Gmundner Basket Swans drew 2:1 in the best-of-5 quarter-final series of the basketball championship on Saturday evening in front of their own audience. The swans are only one win away from entering the semi-final series, in which the winner of the duel between Oberwart and Kapfenberg (stand 2:1) is waiting.
The success came with start-up problems, says Swans CFO Harald Stelzer: “We were nine points behind right at the beginning, but fought back in the second quarter.” The Gmunden team had to play for Toni Blazan, who has been suffering from a flu since Thursday. “That was the reason why we didn’t go into the game so optimistically,” said Stelzer. “But the team made the best of it – especially CJ Anderson, who slipped into the starting five instead of Toni. He put in a great performance and presented Wels with problems that were actually unsolvable. The longer the game lasted, the more confident we were acts.”
Game four will kick off tomorrow at 7 p.m. in Wels. Last Thursday, the Swans suffered a 67:82 defeat in the second game of the series. Stelzer: “If we bring the intensity that we showed on Saturday to the floor on Tuesday as well, then we have a good chance of finalizing the series. But we have already seen in Wels that the grapes there are very high hang.”
A possible fifth, decisive game for entry into the semi-finals would be played on Friday from 7 p.m. in the Gmundner Volksbank Arena. But you would like to save yourself that, because the first game of the best-of-5 semi-final series is already on the program on Sunday. The venue would definitely be Gmunden.
Source: Nachrichten
