JWSport Jacek Waszak – Sport journalist
Pszczółka Start Lublin approached this game with determination and a few resolutions such as the revenge for the defeat against PGE Spójnia in the first round. They also wanted to forget and get revenge for the last setback in the capital, when in the last game they lost by two points to Legia 72:74. Start Lublin is fighting for the fourth place in the first round of play-offs. PGE Spójnia Stargard wants to be in the top eight of the play offs. Last time team led by David Dedek won on February 7th in Szczecin. All teams still have a chance to fight for Polish Champions in EBL.
Both teams played this game as an overdue because it was to be played in the 16th round of Energa Basket League, this game was postponed. Coach Jacek Winnicki before this game occupied a good place in the first eight of the play offs and lost only a few games, but the last meeting was fortunate to win in Radom because they won by as much as 2 points (75:73). Lublin’s coach David Dedka is counting on winning and calculating to take fourth place at the end of the 2020/2021 regular season and in the play – offs to get as much as possible and even reach the finals.
Start Lublin started the first quarter with 24 second error but then hosts’ player Sherron Dorsey-Walker started the game with four points and later in the 3rd minute after Kacper Borowski’s basket Start Lublin was winning 6:2. Visitors quickly got back on track thanks to Raymond Cowels who scored twice in a row from behind 675 cm line and not only made up for the loss but also got out to the lead (8:7). Then they had even more lead at 19:11. Mateusz Dziemba’s three-pointer gave Lublin 22:15 lead, but Cohesion didn’t give up and started to pull away at the end of the quarter. After Filip Matczak scored two points in the quarter (22:20). However last seconds of the quarter belonged to Lublin who won this quarter on the board 26:20.
Second quarter was full of jumps and spurts for Cohesion. Then red-blacks started to pull away and after a quarter of play and Yoannick Franke’s basket they jumped out to ten points (35:25). Visitors started chase and quickly made up five points. Initially they got closer to their opponent, but after few mistakes it was 37:25 for the hosts. Stargard players had also better moment. Jay Threatt came back to the game and after good actions by Kacper Mlynarski and Mateusz Kostrzewski the gap shrunk to four points (41:37). With what both teams presented after the break and taking into account the absence of Nick Faust, the first half was surprisingly offensive. Dustin Ware and Sherron Dorsey-Walker scored nine points each. PGE Spójnia was led by Kacper Młynarski with 10 points and Mateusz Kostrzewski and Filip Matczak with nine points each. Coach David Dedek players even had 12 points in reserve. Both teams went to the locker room with 49:44 advantage.
Third quarter started with Baylee Steele hitting three-pointers. Subsequent individual actions didn’t bring any results and hosts jumped out to 55:47. Pressure in the defense started to bring results in the form of Pszczółka Start’s losses. PGE Spójnia was able to play faster, and what is the most important, team actions were the key to the fantastic series of 11 points in a row. There were few more chances to improve this result because for a few minutes hosts were not able to get anything going.
After six points by Omari Gudul it was even 64:59. Still in the third quarter Pszczółka Start led to a tie, and counting with the beginning of the next period hosts retaliated with series of 11 points. The long deadlock was broken by Baylee Steele with a three-pointer. Two consecutive threes were followed by Kacper Młynarski to tie the game at 75:75. Team led by coach David Dedek had another answer for such spurt.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter players from Lublin started to gain advantage. Now Cohesion got stuck in the attack. In 33rd minute after Dziemba’s basket hosts were leading by 70:64. Stargard team didn’t give up and tried to close the gap. At one point its efforts were crowned with success, because after Kacper Młynarski’s shot, the scoreboard showed a 75:75 tie. A fierce battle lasted till the very end, but it was the visitors who chased the score.
Seconds before the final buzzer Mlynarski hit a three-pointer but it only helped to reduce the lead to an absolute minimum because eventually hosts won 87:86. In the home team effectively played recently acquired Dustin Ware, who finished the game with 19 points.
The last minute dragged on endlessly was a horor for both teams . It was a war of nerves at the free throw line. The coaches used all the timeouts they were entitled to in order to plan the next actions. Mateusz Kostrzewski and Jay Threatt missed twice each. Kacper Mlynarski scored three-pointer but there was no time to do anything else. On the other side Dustin Ware was fouled a lot and his team won by one point and the scoreboard showed 87:86 for hosts.
Pszczółka Startu Lublin players won against Spójnia Stargard 87:86 in the overdue league game.
They missed 4 out of 6 free throws in the final period and 8 out of 14 in the entire game. By comparison the hosts missed only once in 21 attempts. In the last minute tactically fouled Dustin Ware made six unerring free throws, sealing the victory for the hosts.
What happened next is hard to explain. Those three minutes completely blur the picture. We couldn’t make any more mistakes in the end, because we made eight losses and one three-pointer. That’s all we did. Of course team from Radom played aggressively but in five minutes they threw 23 points which would give 46 points per quarter – commented Jacek Winnicki from PGE Spójnia Stargard .
Pszczółka Start Lublin – PGE Spójnia Stargard 87:86 (26:20, 23:24, 15:20, 23:22)
Pszczółka: Searcy 15 (11 zbiórek), Dorsey-Walker 11, Laksa 8 (2×3), Łączyński 6 (2×3, 8 asyst), Borowski 2 oraz Ware 19, Szymański 8, Davis 7, Franke 6, Dziemba 5 (1×3), Jeszke 0.
Spójnia: Threatt 16 (1×3), Matczak 13, Kostrzewski 11 (1×3), Steele 10 (2×3), Cowels 6 (2×3) oraz Młynarski 19 (5×3), Gudul 6, Han 3 (1×3), Siewruk 2.
