This time the Swans didn’t let anyone take the butter off their bread

Two basketball play-off duels, two overtimes – this best-of-5 semifinal series, in which the OCS Swans Gmunden took revenge for the 75:81 home defeat on Saturday and after a breathtaking 45 minutes in the with 950 fans packed Welser Raiffeisen-Arena with 92:84 (49:42, 78:78) got the upper hand.

“Once again, this was not for the faint of heart, you can see how tight the story is. We were under a lot of pressure. A 0:2 would have made the task extremely difficult,” said Swans Managing Director Richard Poiger and at the same time praised the character of his team.

The “Korbjäger” from Traunsee have learned the lessons from the past overtime and this time they didn’t let themselves be fooled. What happened before was strikingly reminiscent of Saturday. Gmunden had meanwhile gained a twelve-point lead again (58:46/25.), The Flyers around birthday boy Austen Awosika (he turned 25 yesterday) tirelessly fought back. Even a blackout in the hall – at 8.14 p.m. it was dark for almost two minutes due to a technical defect above the floor – did not affect the energy level.

“I’m incredibly proud of my team, they gave their all. Basketball lives in Wels, it’s a duel at eye level and an advertisement for the sport,” emphasized Flyers coach Sebastian Waser, who, like his opponent Anton Mirolybov on the line, mutated into a gesticulating kilometer eater. Nobody in the audience stayed seated either – especially not when the Wels team equalized with a three from Donovan Smith 1.8 seconds before the siren to make it 78:78.

But this time Gmunden didn’t let the butter be taken off their bread in the extra time. “We were ready for it, that’s good. Now we have the home right back on our side and don’t want to give it up anymore,” said Swans captain Daniel Friedrich, who scored 23 points. There was only one where the statistics shone even brighter. We’re talking about Urald King, who scored an impressive 24 points and twelve rebounds. On the Wels side, Smith and Arvy-das Gydra each scored 19 points. On Thursday we continue in Gmunden. Overtime again?