Reigning basketball champion Gmunden did not come to Vienna to be dethroned and to congratulate BC Vienna on their second championship title after 2013. The Swans rebelled against the supposed giant BC Vienna, they inflicted the Superliga-Krösus with 107:86 (59:48) the first home defeat of the season in its Hallmann Dome fortress and sent the final series into overtime.
The Viennese party has been postponed, it is only 1:2 from the perspective of the Upper Austrians, who will enjoy home advantage on Tuesday (7 p.m.) in the Volksbank Arena. Will the turning point even succeed? Who knows? If Toni Blazan (25 points) and Carlos Novas Mateo (26 points) score like they did today, anything is possible. “We can play loosely, the pressure is on the Viennese,” Swans coach Anton Mirolybov emphasized before the third showdown. And so it was. Nobody had expected that the Gmunden would come back again.
“We played very concentrated”
Even among their own fans, optimism had dropped to almost zero, and a trip to Vienna for the third match was canceled because there were registrations in the single digits. That’s not enough for a project like this. Gmunden did not think about surrendering to his sporting fate.
“We played very concentrated and worked as a team,” said Novas Mateo, who was outstanding in the second quarter. While the Viennese had led 26:25 after the first ten minutes, the Swans turned the tables in the second ten minutes.
We went into the half-time break with a 59:48 lead. Eight of 15 three-point attempts (53 percent) turned out to be direct hits, the Viennese were amazed at the throwing power on the opponent’s side. It goes without saying that Vienna coach Aramis Naglic, who had been voted Coach of the Year before the match, had a cabin sermon ready for his ensemble. But that didn’t work.
Tears of joy on the bench
Because Gmunden continued to sit in the driver’s seat and gradually increased his lead to up to plus 18 points. You have to do that against this BC Vienna first. After the third quarter, Gmunden was still comfortably in the lead with 84:71, the Viennese were slowly running out of time.
Even seven minutes before the end, Novas Mateo had a big grin on his lips in what was probably the best match of his career (highest point value). It was such an evening that nothing could stop the Upper Austrians. They were in a flow. Mirolybov wept tears of joy, he was so proud of his boys.
Team manager Raoul Korner, who led the WBC Wels to the title in 2009, was also enthusiastic: “It’s impressive how Gmunden fought back. They didn’t think about giving up.” Blazan saw it too: “For us, the series has really started now. We come back home, with our fans the roof flies off.”
Source: Nachrichten
