The Austrian basketball champion 2021/22 is called BC Vienna. The star ensemble from the capital won the fourth Superliga final in front of 1200 fans in the Volksbank Arena against the Swans Gmunden 86:60 (45:38) and the best-of-5 series 3:1. For the Viennese it is the second title after 2013 and the first double in the club’s history. Coach Aramis Naglic’s team had previously won the national cup.
Gmunden is dethroned, but the basket hunters from the Salzkammergut can look back on a successful season. It was entirely within the realm of possibility to continue the comeback and extend the showdown again and lead into an all-important Game 5 that would have taken place in Vienna on Saturday. “We made too many mistakes of our own,” judged Toni Blazan.
The “swans” were bursting with energy, but you could tell they were under pressure. This carefreeness from Saturday, when the Gmundners celebrated a 107:86 victory on opposing territory, was gone.
Coach Anton Mirolybov’s team followed from practically the first second, something like that takes a lot of energy. Also, the balls didn’t want to fly the way they were supposed to. For example with Carlos Novas Mateo, who was the man of the match in the third final with 26 points. This time he managed almost nothing. The Upper Austrians made too many ball losses in this intense showdown. It ended up being a sensitive debacle.
A team of the quality of BC Vienna punishes something like that mercilessly. National player Bogic Vujosevic in particular carried the Viennese through many tricky phases with his sovereignty, his passing game and his throwing qualities. “We knew it was going to be a tough series. It’s nice that we came back like this,” emphasized the 29-year-old.
Rain interruption in the hall
Even a rain break (yes, something like that can also happen in a hall) was not able to stop the “gold guys”. Rainwater dripped onto the floor through an open hatch, Swans Managing Director Richard Poiger even acted as a “wiper”. The match was stopped for five minutes, the emotion remained high.
Towards the end of the third quarter the preliminary decision was made, the Viennese moved up and away. “It was still a good season,” said Poiger.
The 2022/23 season is already casting its shadow. As in the previous year, Gmundner will compete in the European Cup, the domestic Superliga will be increased from twelve to 14 clubs after the license documents have been checked. The Vienna Timberwolves remain top notch because they drew the wild card. New on board are the newly promoted Fürstenfeld Panthers (second division champions) and BBC Nord Dragonz from Eisenstadt. The second league is growing from Upper Austria: The youth project of the Swans Gmunden, the Raiffeisen Flyers Wels and the FCN Wels was accepted. In this way, talented people can be brought to the top more effectively. A good move.
“We are extremely pleased that after the Future Team Steiermark, a second team has now come on board to promote young talent,” said league manager Johannes Wiesmann.
Source: Nachrichten
